Operation Matchmaker!
by Star-Gamer
Summary: Oshawott has been acting pretty strange lately or at least, more strange than normal. And Pikachu is going to have to help him out in some way because Oshawott really could do with some advice if he wants to be his usual confident self again.
1. Operation Matchmaker: Part 1

**Formerly known as Matchmaker Pikachu! although now with a better title. Anyway, Oshawott is just so cute it's unbelievable so he had to have a story of his own! I haven't even evolved mine, I like him just the way he is. Hope you enjoy it!**

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**Operation Matchmaker: Part 1**

Pikachu was the first one to notice that something was wrong. In fact, he had noticed that something was wrong a few days ago and he was surprised, although only slightly so, that nobody else (apart from a couple of exceptions) had noticed this as well. It was pretty unusual behaviour after all and he was slightly disappointed that Ash hadn't noticed this but at the moment, he was busy training with Tepig and Unfezant and the rest of his Pokémon had been left to their own devices, so to speak. Iris was currently training with Excadrill and Cilan was (to use his connoisseur parlance) was busy creating a fruity, fabulous masterpiece that combined sweetness and richness that dazzled the senses and so created exquisite dinner time.

Pikachu glanced over at the rest of his fellow Pokémon. They seemed happy enough and were just playing about with each other… apart from one certain individual. Pikachu had his suspicions but now he had the perfect opportunity to verify those suspicions. He got up and avoiding the attention-seeking eye of Emolga (who, let us face it, was incredibly irritating for the most part), he wandered over nonchalantly to the river which his fellow Pokémon was sitting by.

"Hey," said Pikachu as he made himself comfortable on the grass. Oshawott, the source of Pikachu's concerns, barely seemed to notice his presence and continued to stare into the watery depths, sighing to himself. Pikachu's ears twitched; Oshawott was clearly not his usual self.

Here was the basic problem: Oshawott was in love.

Now stop me if you have heard this one before; that Oshawott was in love. This was not something unusual for Oshawott to do as Ash had unfortunately found out to his chagrin. That business with the Purrloin, thought Pikachu, was quite frankly embarrassing and Emolga seemed to have held some sort of magic infatuation over Oshawott. Actually, that was the other curious thing. Oshawott no longer responded to her flirtatious act, not to get her apples, not to act as her chaperone, nothing. Emolga was disappointed over losing her plaything and was now in a huff which suited Oshawott fine. Oshawott was now older and wiser (by two weeks anyway); she would have to find some other sap of a victim.

"So…" said Pikachu, unsure of how he was actually going to get this in the open. "You don't seem to have been yourself lately. You've been ignoring Emolga which is quite an achievement actually seeing how determined she is to get you again and you haven't been coming out of your Pokéball as much. You haven't even been eating properly and if that doesn't worry me, I don't know what does." It was true; Oshawott was normally as much as a connoisseur about food as Cilan and now he never seemed able to finish a meal although Tepig was often happy enough to finish them for him.

Oshawott shifted about nervously on the spot. Pikachu sighed. It was hard work taking on the elder brother role in the family at times. Nevertheless, he wanted to get to the bottom of this even though they had had their fair share of differences to be sure.

"Oshawott, you can tell me what's wrong you know. I won't tell any of the others if you don't want me to." Pikachu patiently waited for a response, figuring that Oshawott would tell him in his own time while at the same time, wished that Oshawott would just talk; this new silent Oshawott was rather unnerving.

As he waited for Oshawott to speak, either to tell him what was the matter or to just go away, Pikachu was reminded of their old friend Brock who usually fell for every girl he laid his eyes upon, including every Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny. In the Sinnoh region, Croagunk kept him in check with a Poison Jab to the backside if he felt that his trainer was going too far. Good times, good times…

"Are you sure you won't tell anyone?" said Oshawott, almost mumbling to himself, snapping Pikachu out of his reverie. He played about with his beloved scalchop; a sure sign of nervousness.

"I won't tell a soul," Pikachu promised.

Oshawott turned to face Pikachu and Pikachu realised after a moment that Oshawott was trembling with fear. Was it really that difficult for Oshawott to confess what Pikachu suspected, even though he had shamelessly flirted with others before? Apparently so. Things had changed.

"I-" Oshawott began, pressing his scalchop against him for comfort. He looked about just in case anybody happened to be listening in. Oshawott seemed to be growing more nervous if that was possible. He tried again. "It's just that-" Oshawott blushed, petered out and could not continue. Even just thinking about the whole situation made his heart flutter.

"So what you are trying to say," said Pikachu calmly. "-Is that you're in love?"

"Shhhhh!" hissed Oshawott, covering Pikachu's mouth before he gave anything else away. "Somebody might hear!"

Pikachu moved Oshawott's paw away. "Am I right though?"

Oshawott, still looking fearful, slowly nodded.

"So… who is it then?"

Oshawott mumbled something under his breath.

"I didn't catch that."

Oshawott turned so pink that anybody could have mistaken him for a shiny Oshawott; even his scalchop looked pink. "Snivy," he whispered.

Pikachu raised an eyebrow at that. He was in love with _Snivy?_ Considering it though, it was not so shocking news. He remembered the stolen glances that Oshawott kept giving Snivy over the past week or so and around her, he seemed unnaturally quiet and cautious. Well, well, well, this was interesting news. He wondered what the rest would make of it.

"I bet I look like a complete idiot in front of her," Oshawott whimpered. "I'm clumsy, I'm reckless, I act like a clown, I end up doing stupid things. There's no way she would be interested in me; I'd make her look like a fool too."

"I don't know," said Pikachu carefully. "Have you asked her?"

Oshawott looked at him as if he was the stupid one. "Of course I haven't!"

"Well then, how do you know that Snivy won't be interested in you?"

Oshawott had no answer to that but he felt that the notion was rather a pleasing one. Pikachu patted him on the back.

"She might well be feeling the same way as you," said Pikachu. "She just acts more confident than you do."

"You think so?" said Oshawott, slightly more cheered up than he was a moment ago.

"Yeah."

"It's lunch tiiiiiiime!" trilled Cilan as he added the finishing touches to the marvellous masterpiece that he was making.

"Alright!" shouted Ash enthusiastically. "Come on, guys! I don't know about you but I'm starving!"

Everybody's Pokémon dashed to the table, eagerly awaiting their meal. Pikachu set off too but then noticed that Oshawott wasn't following him. So much for the confidence booster for a normally confident Pokémon.

"Come on, Oshawott. You're not going to get anywhere by starving yourself," said Pikachu, cajoling him. "They're all waiting for us including Snivy."

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," said Oshawott quietly. "I want to declare my love for Snivy but I just can't do it!"

Pikachu tried not to sound exasperated. Love was a very confusing issue. "We'll deal with that later. But for now, let's just get something to eat. You don't have to sit near Snivy or look at her if you don't want to."

"Pikachu, is something wrong?" called Ash as he walked over to the pair.

"~Pikapikapi~," said Pikachu, pointing to Oshawott. The Water Pokémon noticed everybody looking at him including Snivy. He froze on the spot, unsure of what to do.

"What's the matter with Oshawott?" asked Iris as she fed her Axew apples as usual.

"I don't know," said Ash, picking up his Pokémon. Oshawott seemed very unhappy. "Are you feeling sick?" He checked Oshawott all over in the hope that it would reveal some answers.

_He's feeling sick alright, _thought Pikachu to himself. _Lovesick._

"Is it just me, or does Oshawott look thinner to you?" Cilan wondered as he too went to look at Oshawott. "Come to think of it, I don't think he's been eating properly of late. Maybe he does have an illness."

Pikachu had wished many times before that he could somehow project his thoughts to the trainers or talk like Team Rocket's Meowth or if it came to that, somehow get Meowth to tell them what the matter was exactly since Meowth could be nice when he wanted to be. This was one of those moments.

"You're right!" said Ash. "I should have noticed it myself. I've been too busy thinking about training and everything. Maybe we should take him to the Pokémon Centre…"

"~Oshawott!~Oshawott!~"

Oshawott leapt from Ash's arms to wildly protest against this. He was saying that everything was perfectly fine, he was just feeling a little under the weather and no, he wasn't particularly hungry despite the fact that it was Cilan's cooking and that he wanted to be on his own for a while. Oshawott wandered away from the group and before could go after him, Pikachu had to block his path and try to say that it really would be for the best to leave him alone for a while and he would take him some food later. Ash had to relent but he wasn't happy with the situation. He would try to talk to Oshawott himself later although he wouldn't have much success. Oshawott could be stubborn when he wanted to be, much like Pikachu and his trainer.

"How about we contact Professor Juniper when we get to the next town?" suggested Cilan as they finished their meal. "Oshawott was originally her Pokémon after all; maybe she knows something about this behavioural change."

"That's a great idea, Cilan!" cried Ash. "Let's go already!"

"Er, Ash," said Iris in that tone of voice which irritated Pikachu. "We're going to have tidy this lot up first. And then you're going to have find Oshawott afterwards. You're always rushing off. You're such a kid!"

"~Axew~," said the dragon Pokémon in agreement.

"Fine…" Ash sighed.

As he helped Iris clear everything, Pikachu walked off in the direction that Oshawott had and carried with him some of the Pokémon food. Unbeknownst to him, Emolga was sneakily following behind; she wanted to know why Oshawott was no longer responding when she teased him, she didn't even think that Attract was working anymore. That to her, was a slight on her cuteness which was of course, not allowed at all.

"Thanks…" said Oshawott as he accepted the food and began eating it although with little enthusiasm. Emolga hid herself amongst the tree leaves. She was waiting for the juicy gossip.

"If you're that worried about it, I'll watch her to see whether she likes you or not. I'm pretty sure she'll give away some clues."

"Mm." Oshawott swallowed with difficulty. His thoughts seemed to block out everything else including that of food. Pikachu winced. It was painful to watch.

"What will I do if she doesn't like me?" he asked. Pikachu considered the matter seriously. Emolga was already getting impatient: just who on earth was he referring to?

"Then… you could still remain good friends if she doesn't like you in that way. But don't beat yourself up over it; give it some time."

Oshawott looked at the remainder of his food and passed it over to Pikachu, not having felt hungry in the first place.

"I'll try but I'm not promising anything," said Oshawott. "And... I don't want to harm our friendship either. That's... also why I've been so cautious. It would be hard for us if everything went wrong and we still had to travel together. And... she's nice to me. That wasn't always the case back at the lab with the other Pokémon. I'm not going to talk a lot about that but in any case, I was there for a long time. But Snivy... she cares about all of us, probably even Emolga." Emolga snorted at that.

"Yeah," said Pikachu. It was funny how it was always the Grass-Types that looked out for the others and often played the mediator role whenever any disputes arose between the Pokémon and quite often, the trainers.

"Oh, Snivy," Oshawott sighed to himself. "How can I tell you that I love you?"

Emolga nearly fell out of her tree with shock which would have made her presence known. She was thunderstruck. Oshawott was in love with _Snivy? _I mean, come on,_ Snivy? _This was an outrage, a scandal. How dare he fall in love with her? She had to get his love back, she had to. He made her life brighter in many aspects even if she didn't actually love him. And if Snivy felt the same way as Oshawott, well, that would be one over her rival. Emolga almost cackled and flew out of the tree back to where the others were.

"We better get back," said Pikachu. "They're going to be wondering where we are." Pikachu looked at the food before polishing it off. It would have been a shame to waste it.

Oshawott slowly loped off in the direction of the camp and Pikachu followed him, especially concerned about Oshawott's condition. The other Pokémon asked Oshawott how he was feeling but he shrugged them off, partially regretting coming back in the first place, before the rest had gone to sleep or whatever. They tried to ask Pikachu what the matter was but Pikachu refused to divulge anything: it was Oshawott's choice that he told him in the first place and it was Oshawott's choice to tell anybody else that he was in love.

Tomorrow, Pikachu decided that he would observe Snivy and see what she thought about Oshawott, if she thought anything about him at all. For Oshawott's sake, Pikachu fervently hoped that she did think the same about Oshawott or else he would never hear the end of the heartbreak.


	2. Operation Matchmaker: Part 2

**Hello again! Writing this story has provided a nice distraction from all of the revising that I have to do. ^^ I like the 5th Generation Pokémon too even though some seem to detest them. Oh, well. Please review and tell me what think anyway, people!**

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**Operation Matchmaker: Part 2**

To take Oshawott's mind off whatever was troubling him, Ash decided to devote a whole training session with him even as they were travelling to their next destination. This did seem to take Oshawott's mind off his worries for some time but because Ash hadn't let any of his other Pokémon out, Pikachu couldn't observe Snivy for the time being. What they needed was another distraction of some sort.

What Pikachu hadn't expected was for Team Rocket to provide that distraction.

"~PIKA!~" he cried as he was suddenly snatched up by Team Rocket for the umpteenth time with another new contraption. Team Rocket cackled and prematurely congratulated themselves on their acquisition. Pikachu tried to use Thunderbolt on the capsule that he was trapped in but as he had expected, it was completely shock-proof. Perhaps they were getting smarter after all in the Unova region.

"Hurrah, we've caught da twerp's Pikachu!" cried Meowth. "Let's hightail it outta here an' present him to da boss! We don't to deal with dese dopes after all."

"Team Rocket! You guys again! Can't you just give it up for once?" yelled Ash predictably. Pikachu drummed his tail against the sides of the capsule with impatience. He decided to time how long it would take to rescue him this time.

"What a question, twerpish indeed!" said Jessie. Pikachu sighed: this was the start of their motto. You would think that they would flee while they had the chance.

"We'll answer it when we feel the need!" said James.

"Bringing the blinding while light of evil into the future!"

"Thrusting the hammer of justice into the black darkness of the universe!"

"Carving our names into the rock of eternity!"

"The fiery destroyer, I am Jessie!"

"And with thunderous emotion, I am James!"

"Wisest of the wise, I am Meowth!"

"And we gather under the name of Team Rocket!"

"Hey, guys," said Iris, looking bored. "Why do we just stand here listening to their stupid motto when we could have already beaten them by now?" Pikachu nodded; it was a good point.

"What?" said James, scandalised. "How dare you insult the motto?"

"We put a lot of feeling into creating that motto which is more than I can say about you and your lack of mottos!" shrieked Jessie. "Meowth, put the machine into action already!"

"Aye-Aye, Captain!" said Meowth as he pressed a button making legs sprout out from underneath the mecha. The mecha also revealed its two extendable arms with curious energy compartments inserted into the palms of their robotic palms.

"Meet Electro-Mecha!" Meowth announced gleefully. "This little baby's got more power than a legendary Pokémon since we based it off Pikachu's Electro Orb. Dese cores generate electricity thanks to da powerful batteries we have and then they fling them at ya! Then badda-badda-bing! We have a trio of zapped twerps! There ain't no gettin' away from this mega mecha!"

"Meowth," James hissed. "Don't give away everything to the enemy!"

"So what?" Meowth responded. "They're gonna find out about its strength in a minute anyway!"

"Alright! That's does it!" said Ash finally. "I'm going to send out Krokorok! …If I had Krokorok with me that is," suddenly realising that he left it at the Pokémon Centre previously.

Cilan and Iris looked at each other with embarrassment and would have facepalmed the ground if that wasn't so clichéd. "What a kid," Iris sighed. "Fortunately, I do have a Ground-Type with me! Come out Excadrill!" she cried. Excadrill came out of his Pokéball and was closely followed by Cilan's Dwebble. Ash tried to make Oshawott return but the Water-Type wasn't having any of it.

"Well, if you're sure…" said Ash uncertainly. "Still, I'm going to bring out another Pokémon anyway. Snivy, I choose you!"

_Well, that's done it,_ thought Pikachu as Snivy came out of her Pokéball. Oshawott gave her a glance and looked away again, trying to hide his blushes. He hoped that this wouldn't affect his battling. It didn't help that she was standing so close to him and Oshawott didn't know how to politely shuffle away. He could even catch her floral, Grass-Type scent. Oshawott blushed even more if that was possible. He didn't notice the look that she gave him. Pikachu did however.

"Firing Electro Orb 1!" shouted Meowth as he slammed the control pad in front of him. The Electro-Mecha juddered and without warning, blasted a powerful Electro-Orb towards the group of Pokémon. Everybody quickly dodged out of its path with Oshawott being especially careful to do so, so that he didn't look foolish in front of Snivy, not to mention the fact that he was weak to electric attacks.

"Shoot, we missed!" cried James.

"I'm sure they won't be able to dodge the next one," said Jessie. "And even if they do, this machine will last much longer then they will! And besides, it has very thick armour, let's see them get through that!"

"You got dat one right!" Meowth laughed. "Firing Electro Orb 2!"

"Oshawott, use Razor Shell! Snivy, use Leaf Blade!" cried Ash. He would try to take down the mecha and rescue Pikachu. Excadrill used Metal Claw to dispel the Electro-Orb while Dwebble used Rock Slide against the mecha as well.

Snivy and Oshawott dashed forwards even as the Electro-Mecha kept trying to zap them. Snivy seemed to move effortlessly and with such grace, such style. Oshawott felt clumsy in comparison and it didn't help matters that he tripped over a rock and landed face first. He heard Team Rocket's laughter and felt a number of eyes suddenly turn upon him. Profoundly embarrassed, Oshawott leapt into the air and prepared to slash at the mecha with Razor Shell.

"Try dis one on for size!" cackled Meowth. With the machine, he threw an electrified punch straight at Oshawott and caught him painfully in the stomach. Oshawott slammed face first again into the ground and whimpered with pain.

"Oh, well played!" said James. "It does make a nice change for our plans to run smoothly for once."

"Not so fast!" Jessie hissed. Snivy landed her Leaf Blade with perfection and caused quite some considerable damage coupled with Dwebble's Rock Slide.

"I thought you said that this had thick armour!" Jessie yelled.

"Don't look at me!" said Meowth. "You were the one that said it and besides, James built it dis time!"

"Oh, you would blame me wouldn't you?"

"Just a little bit more guys!" said Ash. Oshawott struggled to get up at first but then he felt a vine wrap itself around him. Oshawott, to his amazement, looked on to see Snivy giving him a helping hand as it were and he was set back upon his feet. Oshawott's determination was resolved; he had to do something to save the day. Without waiting for another command, Oshawott charged forward and dealt the Electro-Mecha a strong blow with Razor Shell, ripping a gash in its somewhat weak surface. Oshawott grinned with pride; he could do this. Snivy gave a small smile.

"That really is making trouble!" Jessie shrieked.

"Let's make it double!" James suggested.

Oshawott fought back with gusto, even though he took several electric attacks head-on. Oshawott began to tire but he still dodged the next speedy Electro-Orb but to his horror, it charged into Snivy instead and she was unable to avoid it. Clearly the move was a powerful one for Oshawott saw her lying on the ground, breathing heavily and unable to defend herself.

"Yeah, we're gonna double that trouble!" Meowth announced. Another crackling, violent Electro-Orb was launched and it was aimed at Snivy. Excadrill and Dwebble attacked the bodywork and the machine violently lurched but Snivy was in danger.

"Oshawott! No!" Ash yelled as the Water Pokémon raced towards Snivy faster than ever before and reaching her just in time, he tried to block the orb with his trusty scalchop. Oshawott struggled against it valiantly but in the end, it proved too much for him as his scalchop was blasted aside and he felt electricity course all through his body. Oshawott crashed into a nearby tree with brute force and collapsed on the very spot.

Thanks to Dwebble and Excadrill, Pikachu finally broke free and as usual, he delivered a first-grade Thunderbolt that caused the mecha to explode. Team Rocket were already one step ahead as they flew away with jetpacks (for they never seemed to blast off any more) and as they flew away, they muttered under their breaths about getting the twerp's Pikachu next time for the boss. Besides, they had a secret mission to be getting on with.

Pikachu picked up Oshawott's scalchop as Ash ran towards his injured Pokémon. He noticed that Snivy was already there beside him, tending to her unconscious friend and he smiled to himself. He supposed that Team Rocket provided a usual distraction after all.

* * *

"There, your Pokémon are all better now!" announced Nurse Joy as the trio's Pokémon were wheeled out by the Pokémon Centre's Audino. Pikachu joyfully leapt onto Ash's shoulder and assumed his accustomed place. "Oh, yes," Nurse Joy continued. "I must inform you that your Oshawott seemed somewhat reluctant to get healed. Audino had to be very forceful about the issue." Audino confirmed this.

"But why?" asked Ash, puzzled. He stared at his Oshawott who looked away, preferring to stare at the floor instead.

"I'm not entirely sure," Nurse Joy admitted. "Perhaps he was more concerned about the well-being of his friends than that of his own. In any case, I would like to keep Oshawott overnight so that I may make further checks on him; he seems to have taken a lot of damage."

"If that's what you think is best," said Ash, concerned about Oshawott. "Thank you, Nurse Joy. We better go and speak to Professor Juniper now. You guys stay here, OK?" he said to the rest of his Pokémon.

Pikachu followed his friends back to the private rooms of the Pokémon Centre and while the rest were eating (except Snivy or it seemed), Pikachu managed to corner Oshawott in another room. Neither of them noticed that a certain Pokémon had come following them again.

"Thanks for earlier," said Pikachu to begin with. "It looks like you've saved me again."

"Er…" Oshawott scratched the back of his head with embarrassment. "It was nothing really."

"And that was a really noble thing you did for Snivy as well."

Oshawott turned pink at the very thought of her. But the pain had been worth it even though he was still feeling its effects now.

"I think she was impressed by that," said Pikachu. "And the way she looked at you earlier… Let us say that she definitely looked interested." Oshawott looked unsure at first but as Pikachu insisted upon it as well as other little clues; he quivered with delight and painstakingly got to his feet.

"I'm going to show Snivy just how much I love her!" he cried, much more like the flirtatious, confident Oshawott of old. "Grass-Types like flowers don't they? I think that might be a good start. I don't suppose I'll be able to get them tonight though. Maybe I could get some Berries at some point," he said thoughtfully. "They're not as common so that would make a really good present. I'll think about it."

"That's the spirit!" said Pikachu, relieved that Oshawott was finally perking up. That battle was just what he needed. Oshawott gave a small smile but as he tried to move, he staggered forwards and Pikachu had to catch him.

"You're not going anywhere just yet," said Pikachu, hoisting the woozy Oshawott on his back. "The Audino will probably DoubleSlap you if you're not in that bed."

"Thanks…" said Oshawott tiredly as Pikachu helped move him back onto the Pokémon bed. Pikachu remembered that when he first arrived in Unova and Oshawott first joined the team, they were practically at each other's throats all of the time. Now Oshawott seemed much more mature, much more experienced and everything was a lot calmer. It could only be a good thing.

As Pikachu left the room, after making sure that Oshawott looked comfortable, he was surprised to see Snivy standing before him.

"How is he?" she asked urgently.

"Er…" said Pikachu. "He's… not too bad. He'll be fine."

Snivy was silent for a moment. "He didn't need to do that. He could have been seriously hurt."

"He'll be fine," Pikachu assured her.

"…Good."

There was a slightly awkward silence as Snivy considered whether to go in or not. She decided to leave him for the time being. "Was there anything else?" said Pikachu.

"I… No," she said quietly.

She turned tail and left and Pikachu was left scratching his head. He had personally little experience of this himself with the main exception being Dawn's Buneary and there were some awkward, embarrassing moments during that adventure. But he had been fond of her. Pikachu followed Snivy back to where the others were and Oshawott tried and failed to get some sleep.

"Hey."

"Hmm?" Oshawott sat up groggily. "Who's there? Oh, sweet Arceus, not you again!" he exclaimed as Emolga suddenly appeared before him wearing a very menacing grin.

"I know who your secret crush is," she sneered.

Oshawott flinched; she must have overheard them earlier. He tried to look her in the eye and to stop himself from looking embarassed. "Yeah? What of it?"

"What do you think you'll get from her that you can't get from me?"

"Well," said Oshawott, pretending to consider it. "I think I'll get someone who cares for others, someone who is nice rather than someone who just uses like you do." Emolga flared up.

"You're getting too big for your boots, Oshawott!"

"I don't wear any boots," said Oshawott smugly.

"I could always use Attract on you," she threatened. She liked the idea of an idiot running after her and attending to her whims, she didn't want to lose that now, it was fun. And besides, who else would get the apples from improbably dangerous places?

"Try it." Emolga looked startled; she expected some sort of retaliation. She decided to oblige him.

"…Right. Fine! You'll be head over heels in love with me again!" she snapped.

Emolga used Attract and a bunch of pink hearts whirled around Oshawott for a moment before hitting him squarely in the chest. However, Oshawott merely shook it off. Emolga was horrified by this.

"It doesn't work now, does it?" said Oshawott quietly. "I think I finally got over that a couple of weeks ago. After you tricked me once again, getting you fruit that you didn't even like, Snivy snapped me out of it and she… talked to me. She said that you were just using me and that I should defend myself against you. I've been the idiot that you think I am, but I'm not anymore. Snivy is far better than you'll ever be!"

"Oh, Snivy, Snivy, Snivy!" Emolga said mockingly. "She probably only said that to be _nice._ That doesn't mean she loves you in return even if you've gone all soppy for her!"

"Humph," said Oshawott crossing his arms. "And I suppose you're an expert on the matter are you?"

"She doesn't love anybody. She's so cold-hearted! Snivy doesn't see anything in you and that's the end of the matter!"

"It is not the end of the matter!" said Oshawott, getting angry. If he had been in full health, he would have fought her there and then. "Just get out of here, Emolga! Leave me alone!"

Emolga's cheeks crackled with electricity. Oshawott stared at her, waiting for her to back down. Finally, Emolga turned away and prepared to walk out. Oshawott also turned away and felt glad that it didn't go any further.

…Until Emolga struck Oshawott in the back with a powerful Discharge so that he was unable to defend himself with his scalchop. Oshawott was conscious just long enough to see the jealous Pokémon stomp out of the medical room before his vision went blurry and then everything went black…


	3. Operation Matchmaker: Part 3

**Operation Matchmaker: Part 3**

"I warn you, if you try to step out of that bed again, I swear to my oath as a Pokémon Nurse that I shall DoubleSlap you silly!"

"But-But-But…"

"No buts! Back into that bed this instance! You do realise that it is 1 o'clock in the morning don't you? If you are so desperate to do some errands while you are still recovering, they can at least wait until morning when you and I are both fully compos mentis. And will you stop unhooking those sensors? They are very important! Do you want to get better or not?"

With deft and well-trained hands, Audino reattached all of the medical equipment to Oshawott and forcibly pushed him back into the bed or she really would have used DoubleSlap upon him. Or Ice Beam. Or something. Anything to make him stay where he was. She wondered if her cousin Chansey had had problem Pokémon like this one. She and Nurse Joy had to rush into the room earlier when the Water Pokémon had suffered a strange lapse that Nurse Joy had put down to an electrical overload of the spontaneous persuasion. Oshawott looked glumly at her and sighed. However was he supposed to get out of here and look for something to present to Snivy?

"Don't give me those sorry-looking eyes, mister!" said the Audino. "If I had money for every time somebody did that to me, I'd have enough money to buy a shop full of Rare Candies! And you can stop that as well!" she said after Oshawott tried to use the cheeky smile trick. "Everybody is asleep as they should be at this time and you might well be in love with your friend Snivy but for the love of Arceus, will you stop trying to leave every time my back is turned?"

Oshawott flinched and turned bright red. "H-H-How did you know about that?"

"Oh, easy," said the Audino. "You were talking in your sleep when we were treating you earlier. You should be grateful that nobody else heard you and that humans can't always understand us."

Oshawott held his scalchop and played about with it as was his wont to do when he was nervous. "I… I do love her you know." Audino gave him a weary smile.

"Yes, I do know that, young Oshawott; it is very easy to tell. And it's very nice that you can find somebody to share your life although that isn't going to happen if you don't tell her how you feel."

Oshawott looked mortified. "I can't do that!"

"And why not?"

"Because… because… Because I know that if I just go in there and tell her how I feel I'll mess it up and I've put off others doing that in the first place and I want to make it really special and I want to get her something really nice and it will help me stop being so nervous and-"

"Right, OK, I get the picture," the exasperated Audino sighed. She gave a wide yawn. "I'm going back to bed and if you get out of yours once again, I'll-"

"DoubleSlap me?" said Oshawott.

"Something like that. Now, goodnight and pleasant dreams."

As soon as the Audino closed the door behind her (and made sure that Oshawott looked asleep), Oshawott opened his eyes and gingerly stepped down onto the cold floor. Sleep was not going to come to him tonight no matter how many times he tried to count Mareep and in any case, he could still fell a throbbing pain all over his body, courtesy of Emolga's violent electrical attack. Just what was it that she had against him… and Snivy come to think of it? She did have a type advantage above the pair of them after all; maybe she just liked to assert her bossy nature. He tried to not dwell on the matter too much.

Oshawott winced as the door creaked open noisily; Audino had a very good sense of hearing and he didn't want to be caught again or else he would probably have to be tied down and given a severe talking to in front of his Trainer which would have been quite frankly embarrassing. Fortunately for him, nobody came charging down the corridor leaving him free to move as quickly and as silently as his present condition would allow him. He made it to the front door and stepped out into the cool night air. Perfect.

Oshawott relished the opportunity to be on his own as he headed towards the dark woods. He just couldn't seem able to organise his thoughts even though he had had a long talk about it with Pikachu and Audino. What were Snivy's feelings for him? What would he do if she just liked him as a friend? Just tell Snivy how he felt? That was like asking him to take on a Legendary blindfolded and _without his scalchop._ Oshawott shuddered. That was a dreadful thought on its own and he felt sick with nerves thinking about that last thoughtm, telling Snivy how he felt. Maybe if he could find something and give it to her; that would surely melt the ice.

Some unknown, night-dwelling Pokémon screeched from goodness knows where; a vicious growl answered in return. Oshawott shivered, especially as a sudden wind whipped up and began blowing a gale. Maybe this wasn't one of his best ideas. His night vision wasn't spectacular and for all he knew, there were perhaps ghosts in these woods waiting to capture him, stick him in a pot, gobble him up and… wait, that was his imagination running away with him again.

Oshawott crept forwards, not letting his fear get the better of him. Surely it wasn't too bad here seeing that it was next to the Pokémon Centre. The area surrounding a Pokémon Centre tended to be quiet anyway. There was nothing to be afraid of.

And sure enough, Oshawott soon caught the scent of a delicious, fruity fragrance that made his very senses tingle. It reminded him of some of the exotic ingredients that Cilan tended to use in his cooking; it smelt beautifully spicy, whatever it was. Delighted, Oshawott began to follow the scent trail that was making his taste buds salivate. It also reminded him of how hungry he was feeling now, Oshawott thought as his stomach rumbled. Well, whatever, he would make up for it come breakfast. It really did smell appetising though; Oshawott would have to make sure that he wouldn't eat it himself.

He noticed that the smell was getting stronger; he must have been getting close now! Oshawott skipped ahead and after some more searching about, there, hanging from a tree branch, was the source of the scent, a mysterious-looking Berry of all things. Oshawott grinned, this was perfect! Oh sure, the branch was hanging over the edge of a cliff but that was small fry; he would just to have be careful in retrieving it. The Berry, which he had never seen before, was rather like an enigma so he decided to call it the Enigma Berry and it surely suited Snivy to the ground, beautiful and mysterious rather like an enigma and… Oshawott stopped himself, since when were chat-up lines his forte?

Oshawott clambered up onto the branch and uneasily kept his balance. Surely it wasn't so difficult, Snivy managed it well enough and Oshawott had a tail to balance himself with as well. He edged forwards with determination and reminded himself to not look down. Heights he could deal with, it was the landing that boded less well.

There... he reached it. Oshawott held himself steady and he tried plucking the Berry off. Of course, it wouldn't come off quite so easily as that. Instead, Oshawott held his scalchop tightly and with precision, sawed through its thick stem. It gave way much more quickly than he expected and Oshawott grabbed at it with his teeth before it fell down below. Oshawott's eyes widened; he noticed that there was an awful lot of below as well; it had to be at least 100 feet. Shakily, fearing that any sudden movements would be his last, he reattached his scalchop and held the Enigma Berry with his free paw. He then turned himself around and staggered his way back onto solid ground. For one moment, he slipped and ended up holding on for dear life with his teeth. Oshawott quickly pulled himself up and continued. He finally reached the safety of the ground again and Oshawott was proudly holding his prize.

"Well, that was easy," said Oshawott happily.

Before Oshawott knew what was happening, the bushes violently rustled and a Haxorus suddenly came out of nowhere roaring at him. Oshawott slowly looked upwards and saw its sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight. Haxorus was a lot bigger than he was, not to mention a lot stronger.

You expected that something would go wrong didn't you?

Oshawott made a run for it as the massive Dragon Pokémon pursued him. Clearly, it was not happy with what it considered to be the theft of its property.

"It's a free country!" Oshawott yelled as he avoided its powerful Dragon Rush. "How was I supposed to know that you had such a temper?" Oshawott threw himself to one side to dodge its next devastating attack only to feel the Dragon's tail slice into his shoulder. Stupid electric Paralysis slowing down, stupid nervous system for informing him of a new wave of pain, stupid Haxorus for being so greedy.

"I-I'm warning you!" stuttered Oshawott as the Haxorus stomped towards him menacingly. "I'm armed with a scalchop and I'm not afraid to use it!" The Haxorus eyed him and then sniggered at such a feeble challenge. It prepared to use Dragon Rush again only this time, with devastating consequences.

"Oh, man, what's going on? Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

Oshawott was startled to hear Ash's voice and even more startled to see Cilan, Iris and Nurse Joy following him. They must have heard all of the commotion. Oshawott hid himself out of the way while Pikachu dealt with the threat. He breathed heavily, thankful for such a lucky escape. However, he then realised that he would be in big trouble if anybody found him out here, especially as they were all so worried about him. Leaving the energetic battling and the inevitable confusion behind him, Oshawott snuck back to the Pokémon Centre, happy that his prize for Snivy had remained intact. Oshawott, with some difficulty, scrabbled onto the window-ledge and dropped back into the ward room which he gathered, had not been checked upon what with all of that outside trouble. Oshawott triumphantly punched the air in self-congratulation, wouldn't this treasure impress Snivy?

Audino switched the light on. She was not impressed. In fact, she glared at him.

Oshawott smiled weakly. "Uhh… hey there, Audino. I wasn't gone for long. You wouldn't hurt an injured Pokémon. Would you?"

* * *

Morning soon arrived and Oshawott quickly woke up despite last night's shenanigans. He had been allowed to keep the Enigma Berry after a whole lot of pleading and begging on his part which Audino had found rather amusing. She was in there now, unplugging everything although considering the amount of time that Oshawott had been out of his bed rather than in it, it seemed to have been a waste of electricity in running the damned things although it had least proved that he was a pretty strong and healthy Pokémon. Once Audino had completed her work, Oshawott turned to the side and went to pick up the gift.

…Only to find that it had disappeared.

"Where is it?" cried Oshawott, panicking.

"Where is what?" asked Audino stiffly.

"The Berry! My gift to Snivy! It's gone! Where did it go?"

"Perhaps you ate it last night; you must have been so hungry staying up for so long."

"That's not funny!" Oshawott cried angrily. He leapt onto his feet and began to search every possible nook and cranny, his panic increasing dramatically. Audino sighed and picked him up causing Oshawott to protest wildly.

"Why don't you go and ask the others?" she suggested. "There's no use in getting yourself into such a fluster. And besides, it's raising your blood pressure."

"How is our patient doing, Audino?" said Nurse Joy, far too cheerfully for Oshawott's liking. Oshawott whimpered as he was passed over feeling like a hatchling again. He had more important things to attend to.

"~Audi~Audino…~"

"Well, thankfully, he appears to be recovering well though he is quite a feisty one. I'm surprised, considering the amount of electricity that he was in contact with. Hey, where are you off to?" Nurse Joy exclaimed as Oshawott broke free from her grip and ran down the corridor, barging past other people and Pokémon. Desperate, Oshawott didn't even notice Ash who had got up early to check upon the Water Pokémon. He ignored Ash's cries and raced towards the lounge which was usually empty considering the time of morning. However, one certain Pokémon was there.

"Do you know," said Emolga, "That I just had the most delicious breakfast of my entire life? I bet you probably wouldn't be able to find another Berry like it in the whole of the Unova region. I appreciate all the trouble that you went to in order to get it although I wouldn't have pushed myself so hard if I was you."

Oshawott stood there, quietly seething with rage. Emolga jumped down and brushed past him, allowing a few sparks of static electricity to settle onto his fur. Oshawott didn't even turn around.

"It was delectably spicy with a taste of dryness but I'm sure I could detect hints of sweetness, sourness and bitterness as well," Emolga continued. "I guess that's why you decided to call it an Enigma Berry. Like I said, it's a shame that you probably wouldn't be able to find any more. But how greedy of me! I should have saved you a piece my dear Oshawott. Then you too could have experienced its pleasures."

Oshawott breathed heavily. He was not going to react, he was not going to react, he was not going to react…

"I suppose I won't need any breakfast now; you may as well have my share. You _are_ looking rather thin of late so I think I would be doing you a favour, you should thank me afterwards, Oshawott. Oh, yes, I think we should have more Berries in our diet; they are very nutritious and those like the Enigma Berry would be of great benefit to our health."

Stay calm, stay focussed.

"Do you suppose that Snivy would have liked it? I doubt that she would have to be honest. She does tend to be on the picky side and she isn't a true connoisseur of food like I am. Her tastes in most other things are decidedly lacking as well. That is why you could do so much better than her, Oshawott and you know where to come if you do decide to find someone better."

"Oshawott! There you are! Please don't run off like that again!" said Ash as he finally found his Pokémon. Oshawott seemed unusually tense even as he picked him up. "I really don't know what's upsetting you, Oshawott, but we are going to get to the bottom of this. Professor Juniper is going to come over; you haven't seen her in ages and I'm sure that she misses you. She said that she had business to do in town anyway. Come on, let's go and feed you up because I don't know about you, but I'm starving!"

"~Oshawott…~"

This was more than jealousy, he decided as he was carried off, glaring at Emolga all of the while. This was not just about jealousy. This was war.

* * *

Snivy lay atop of a small rock, one of her most favourite places for relaxing even as she kept an eye upon the younger Pokémon. It also gave her time to think and to just generally be at peace. She mused to herself as she delicately bit into a fruit muffin. Glancing at it, she was suddenly reminded of the time when she stole and ate the fruit muffins that Cilan had so lovingly prepared for seconds, that was the time when she first met up Ash and his team.

And Oshawott.

It was strange. Normally, she didn't have much time for Pokémon who frequently made fools of themselves and Pokémon who never seemed to take anything seriously although the one thing that Oshawott was serious about was battling. He tended to come out of his Pokéball by his own will and yes, he was determined to challenge her despite the fact that he was of a type disadvantage against a Grass Pokémon. Whether he would have won or not if he was allowed to stay out for the duration of the match she wasn't sure.

Nobody could fault his enthusiasm or his quirky and fun-loving nature. He may have gotten himself into more scrapes than he could remember and got involved in things that he shouldn't have but he still remained a charming and friendly Pokémon. His affection was often quite infectious too.

As both she and Oshawott were members of species that had a male-to-female ratio of approximately 7:1, it was traditional for the male to present the female with a gift of his choosing in order to win her approval and affection; the more impressive, the better as the males had a lot of competition to contend with. Fortunately for Oshawott, he did not have this problem as he was a travelling Pokémon and since Snivy was not one for possessions, he really didn't need to go to such lengths to impress her (though of course he didn't know that). Snivy wondered whether she ought to make the first move this time round...

Snivy surprised herself in thinking that. Had her feelings developed to such a level? Oshawott was sweet to be sure, but was this love that she was feeling? She knew that Oshawott had certainly changed his behaviour in the past week or so; he seemed quieter, more shy and more serious; not at all like the Pokémon she first came across. Was he thinking the same things as her? Snivy was confused and she didn't appreciate that one bit.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden splash and two loud cries.

_Honestly,_ she thought to herself, as she used her vines to fish out Axew and Scraggy from the river that they had been playing in. _You look away for one minute and then they get themselves into trouble. Rather like Oshawott really._

There he was again, invading her thoughts. Her heart fluttered at this. They really were quite the opposite to each other and by the laws of nature, that meant attraction. And Oshawott did save her yesterday, sustaining nasty damage to himself as a result of his actions. He looked at for others as well. Considering all of this, Snivy could not deny it any longer even to herself.

She was in love.


	4. Operation Matchmaker: Part 4

**Operation Matchmaker: Part 4**

In the time that he had tried to get something else for Snivy or do something else since the whole Berry incident, Emolga always seemed to have disrupted Oshawott's plans even if there had been occasions where she genuinely wasn't at fault such as that business with the Joltik (Oshawott decided that he really hated Joltiks now, more so than ever).

He tried getting some Honey since its sweetness was something to be celebrated and he knew that Snivy liked sweet things but that ended up a failure; that was the fault of the Joltik. The Pretty Feather, the clue was in the name, wouldn't that have been suitable? That ended up a failure; it turned out that the Ducklett was still attached to its dropped feather. Even the Miracle Seed was a failure and that would not only have been pretty but also useful. He was pretty sure that Emolga was responsible for the failure of that one. Oshawott was rather dispirited to say the least.

Iris couldn't understand why Ash's Oshawott seemed especially cold to Emolga that day or the day after that or why Emolga was taking it all on chin when she would have normally reacted straight away to such a response. But then again, her cuteness could be deceptive and Iris believed that Emolga was innocent of all things. Ash meanwhile was concerned with why Oshawott was acting so strangely. One minute he was happy, the next subdued and now this plus his strange absences. He saw Pikachu try to communicate with Oshawott and left them to it, figuring that Pikachu would have a better understanding of it anyway.

"OK, so what happened exactly?" Pikachu asked his friend cautiously. He gathered a lot had happened in relatively little time.

Oshawott heaved a heavy sigh. He simply pointed at Emolga who was busy devouring a pile of apples that Axew had brought her. Emolga quite liked the little Dragon Pokémon as he thought that this was all a game although he didn't have quite the same entertainment value as Oshawott of course. Snivy, from her comfortable rock, also kept an eye on the little madam, ready to teach her some manners if need be.

"Do I have to go into any detail?" said Oshawott through gritted teeth. No matter how he tried to avoid her, Emolga always seemed to come and find him quite accidentally of course and it was far worse when he couldn't avoid her. The pettiness of it all infuriated Oshawott. He moodily sharpened his scalchop against a rock as any good Oshawott did in preparation for future battles.

"It would be handy," said Pikachu, eyeing that suddenly razor-sharp weapon of Oshawott's. Fortunately for all concerned, Oshawott simply placed the scalchop back on his stomach and opened up to Pikachu about everything. Pikachu frowned; he wondered why Emolga had seemed so cheery yesterday.

"That was nasty," he commented.

"You can say that again," Oshawott muttered. "But I don't suppose it would be a good idea to battle her."

"No, it wouldn't. But I tell you what would be a good idea," said Pikachu. Oshawott gave Pikachu his full attention. "Don't sit here feeling sorry for yourself; it's not going to get you anywhere and Snivy would probably only tell you the same thing if the situation was a little different. To be honest, Emolga gets on my nerves too," said Pikachu, seeing that Oshawott still looked down. "Arceus knows that she can be a pain but you just need to grit your teeth and bear it. And if you need any help, then just ask me; I'll help in any way I can."

Oshawott stood up and looked at Emolga and Snivy. Emolga had had enough now and she glided over to Iris. Snivy breathed a sigh of relief and curled up underneath the warm sunlight, drifting off even as Axew and Scraggy chased each other noisily. Oshawott tapped his scalchop in a show of determination.

"You're right," he said. "This isn't me. I need to pull myself together." Oshawott drew himself up from his last reserves of confidence. "I'm going to try again and find something else to give to Snivy and this time, it isn't going to be spoiled."

"I'm glad to hear it," said Pikachu.

"But…" said Oshawott. "What can I get her? I'm running out of ideas and I can't ask her directly otherwise it would defeat the purpose of a gift. For us male Starter Pokémon," Oshawott explained to Pikachu. "We have to make a good impression if we want to start a… relationship with a female since there are more of us than them and that usually involves giving a gift. It's traditional."

"What about that business with the Purrloin?" asked Pikachu, unable to help himself. "You went in there all guns a-blazing."

"Don't remind me. That was an entirely different situation," Oshawott groaned. "I thought it was a female and so did Team Rocket's Meowth. I suppose it was just a crush really, she, er, he looked cute. But… things are different this time!" Oshawott announced. "And in light of that…" Oshawott thought to himself. Aha! How could he have forgotten about that particular gift? He'd mentioned it before as well. A simple gift would do it. "I'm going to find some nice flowers for Snivy, present them to her and hopefully…" Oshawott shuffled nervously. "She'll go out with me."

"Why do you want to give flowers to Snivy? What do you mean by 'going out'? We're already outside aren't we? So what do you mean, huh?"

Pikachu and Oshawott found that their conversation had been interrupted by Axew who, in his childish innocence, had absolutely no idea what they were really talking about but that of course, meant that he wanted it explaining to him and Axew would just keep asking them until one of them finally cracked.

"Er…" Pikachu began; unsure of how to deflect this since Oshawott was already going red with embarrassment.

"What's the point of giving flowers to someone?" said Axew. "Does Snivy like flowers? Why does Oshawott want to go out with Snivy? Why? Why? Why?"

"Because!" said Pikachu brightly. "It's custom to give flowers to someone when… it's their birthday! Yeah! And Grass-Types especially love flowers because they like plants and stuff anyway!"

Axew stared at him. "Really?" Axew gave this some thought. "But why flowers?"

"Because flowers are beautiful and they smell nice and… you know… things like that!" said Oshawott. "They have to be especially nice for someone's birthday! And… and… Snivy likes flowers!"

Axew remembered something else. "But it's not Snivy's birthday today."

"But it will be soon!" said Oshawott. "I'm just getting prepared just in case I don't have the chance to get anything!"

"Do I have to get Snivy flowers?" said Axew innocently.

"No!" said Oshawott. "I mean," he said when Axew looked confused. "One bunch of flowers will be fine. She wouldn't want too many. Lots and lots of flowers would be, er, too much. I mean, you would probably get sick from eating too many apples wouldn't you?

"I like apples," said Axew.

"OK, so you like apples. Great. But Snivy likes flowers and that is what I will be giving her when I get the chance to do so. Right, I really need to go now so I'll catch you later…"

"But you haven't answered my other question!" Axew wailed, grabbing hold of Oshawott.

"Er… which one was that?" said Pikachu as Oshawott tried to get Axew off him.

"Why does Oshawott want to go out with Snivy?" he insisted.

"Because… because… because…. Because we're good friends!" said Oshawott frantically. "We've got common ground, we're both Starter Pokémon and I just want to talk in private!"

"What does 'private' mean?" asked Axew.

"Oshawott means that he just wants to be alone with Snivy for a while and not be disturbed by anybody else," Pikachu sighed. Then he realised that as soon as he said those words, he knew what the next question would be.

"Why does Oshawott want to be alone with Snivy?"

_Kids,_ thought Pikachu. _Why can be sweet one moment and extremely irritating the next?_

Then Axew clapped and danced about in glee. "I know why! I know why!" he said happily. "Oshawott wants to kiss Snivy! Oshawott's in love! I'm going to tell Snivy! Oshawott's in love!"

"No I'm not!" he hissed as he finally wrenched the Dragon Pokémon of him. "And it's meant to be a surprise anyway so don't say anything!"

"But you're in love, aren't you?" said Axew.

Axew's perseverance had paid off. Oshawott finally cracked. "Oh for crying out loud," he muttered. "Yes, I am love with Snivy! There, I said it! Does the whole world want to know? I am in love with Snivy! OK, have you got that? I want to give Snivy flowers and go out with her and be more than just friends with her because I AM IN LOVE WITH HER!" Oshawott suddenly realised what he just said out loud and Pikachu face-palmed himself for Oshawott's sake.

Axew was now satisfied that his questions had been answered. He was going to tell his best friend Scraggy. He ran off giggling.

"Oshawott and Snivy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"It's a grown-up thing!" yelled Oshawott as he chased after the young Pokémon. "Can't you keep a secret?"

Axew stopped and turned around. "You'd have to do something for me in return."

"No," said Oshawott. "Just keep quiet about this."

"I can't keep secrets unless you do something for me," said Axew seriously.

"Alright, fine! Whatever you want! Just don't tell anybody!" said Oshawott, nearly at begging-point.

"I tell you after you've told Snivy that you love her. Now you have to promise that you'll do whatever I ask you after you tell Snivy that you want to go out with her."

"Alright. I promise to do whatever you ask after I've told Snivy that I want to go out with her. Deal?"

"Yay!" said Axew joyfully. "Thanks, Oshawott! Now I'll keep it a secret for you."

As soon as Axew bounded off, Oshawott flopped backwards onto the grass and was approached by a sympathetic Pikachu. He hoped that nobody else heard that conversation although knowing his luck, they probably had.

"What have I done to deserve this?" Oshawott murmured as he stared into the sky. "I'm sure Emolga's being teaching Axew how to blackmail."

"Hm, perhaps," said Pikachu. "Anyway, I wouldn't hang about if I were you. Axew probably isn't the best Pokémon to keep secrets. I wouldn't be surprised if he was telling Scraggy now." This caused Oshawott to leap up and dash away in the direction of town (figuring that he wouldn't be attacked by any giant Dragon Pokémon or anything else this time). "And be more careful for once!" Pikachu yelled after him. "I know why that Haxorus was mad so don't go infuriating anybody else!"

Oshawott didn't hear him. Pikachu shook his head and went to see if Axew could keep his side of the bargain for more than five minutes…

* * *

"Flowers, flowers, flowers…" Oshawott muttered under his breath. Nobody seemed to notice a small Oshawott wandering about in their midst and if they did, they spared a quick cursory glance and assumed that he was already with somebody. For his part, Oshawott just wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible; he had already had his tail stood on twice and the next person to do so was just waiting for a Water Gun in the face.

He walked past a busy café and did not notice the figures in black hiding behind newspapers. They glanced at the Oshawott, smiled and pretended to carry on reading the latest Unova gossip. In reality, a laptop was brought out and a tracker system was booted up. Sweet, a new plan had already been formulated.

It took Oshawott some time since he'd never been to this town before but he finally found the place that he was looking for. A strong wave of rose petals and lavender hit him and the florist's Lilipup stared at him from the counter. Oshawott groaned. Did human males go into these sorts of places? He had no idea how this sort of thing was really supposed to go. All he had done was act upon instinct before and now that he was thinking about it, it all seemed rather embarrassing.

Oshawott, in his haste, hadn't thought about it before but he only just considered it now: how was he supposed to pay for these things? When humans bought something from a shop, they paid the seller with money; he'd seen Ash and Professor Juniper do that. But Pokémon never carried money with them; they had no need for it after all. Maybe this was another bad idea…

Oshawott shook his head. He'd just have to make it up to them somehow, he was sure that they would understand.

"Hey," he said to the Lilipup who was now treating him with an especially suspicious glance. "You couldn't happen to do a favour for a fellow Pokémon could you?"

* * *

Pikachu paced up and down and wished that he had stopped Oshawott before. He couldn't just go off on his own like that! Oshawott was likely to get lost or end up in trouble or something and Ash would be back any minute. As they were at a Pokémon Centre that sat at the edge of town, a lot of trainers passed by with many coming to heal their Pokémon and to make plans to stay for the night. Ash, Cilan and Iris had got talking to a couple of them and were already arranging battles since it was all preparation for the Unova League and his fellow Pokémon were starting to get restless anyway after their mini-break.

"Come on, where are you?" he muttered to himself. He didn't want to be held responsible for Oshawott's new disappearance.

"Has he gone again?" said a voice behind him.

"I suppose there's no hiding anything from you," said Pikachu to Snivy as she walked up beside him.

"Mm. So do you think he'll be back soon?"

"I hope so," said Pikachu. "At least he isn't moping about now. I guess he's finally matured."

"In a manner of speaking," said Snivy. "But he doesn't need to do all of this; he doesn't need to prove anything. Tell me when he gets back, would you?"

"Huh? What?" said Pikachu as he processed what Snivy said. "Hey, wait a moment!"

"Hey, Pikachu, come on buddy, looks like we've got ourselves a match!"

"~Pika-Pikachu!~"

_I hope he doesn't notice,_ thought Pikachu to himself as he followed Ash to where the match would take place. _If Oshawott doesn't get back in five minutes, I swear I'm going to electrocute him…_


	5. Operation Matchmaker: Part 5

**Operation Matchmaker: Part 5**

"So we're gonna have to strike tonight, dig? When all the twerps are snoozing, we just go in a-cruising and nab their Pokémon!"

"This seems rather like a blast from the past to me when we did far less planning and just got on with things without thinking..."

"Well, we've completed the mission for the boss so I think we've got more than enough time to make a little detour. And it's not as if we've never gone in without a plan before!"

"Speak for yourself…"

"Keep quiet! Anyway, I've come up with the plan this time so it's bound to be a success."

"Does it involve mechas?"

"No, it doesn't involve mechas; we'll just use our wits."

"Well, I've got enough wits for the two of youse, HEY, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

"Now, let us do this for Team Rocket!"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

There was a short silence.

"My Wobbuffet would have come in that part."

"Yeah… Don'tcha just miss the old days?"

* * *

"What's the matter, Lillipup?" asked the lady shopkeeper as she noticed her Pokémon growl at Oshawott who had been backed into a corner. Oshawott looked more embarrassed than scared. It was funny how he had never seemed to notice it before. He tried asking other female Pokémon out before and despite his blushes, he often seemed able to go through with it. Why was it more painful to do so now? And why was nothing ever simple in this world?

"Aww, what a cute Pokémon!" she said, smiling at Oshawott. Oshawott smiled, he was cute and everybody knew that. "It's alright Lillipup; he's not going to do anything bad." Lillipup stopped growling although it still eyed the Water-Type with suspicion. "Now what are you doing here all on your own?"

"~Oshawott~Oshawott~Oshawott…~"

Oshawott tried to explain although it wasn't easy when he was getting so flustered about it. He picked up the nearest bouquet and mimicked walking through the door with it. He stayed close to the lady just in case the Lillipup thought that he was going to steal the bouquet. He sniffed the flowers and noted its delicate and soft fragrance. Oshawott gave a happy sigh. This was perfect.

"Well…" she said. "I understand what you are saying but are with a trainer or are you a wild Pokémon?"

Oshawott explained his situation again but with even more exaggerated motions. Some of the petals from the bouquet fluttered onto the floor. Oshawott almost squeaked with fright and so carefully placed the bouquet on the floor. He looked at the florist with shining eyes, practically begging if he could take them now. She thought about it.

"I suppose I could let you have them," she said. "However, I can't just let you have them for free otherwise other people would want them for free too. So how about you do something for me first?"

_Another promise?_ Well whatever, it would probably be far less painful than what Axew was probably going to make him do. Oshawott eagerly agreed.

"Great!" she trilled. "Now since you're so cute, you can help me promote my shop with this little darling!"

The florist pulled out a flowery costume that sparkled in the sunlight. People were already coming in, attracted by the sight of a cute-looking Oshawott. The Lillipup sniggered; it was glad it didn't have to wear that. Oshawott cringed. He had nothing to lose at all… except his dignity.

* * *

Pikachu noted with surprise that their opponent was to be Stephan, a fellow Pokémon trainer who they had met up with a few times before. Cilan would of course, be doing the refereeing while Iris sat and watched. Stephan grinned when he saw Pikachu since Pikachu was a very rare Pokémon in Unova.

"Hey, Ash, your Pikachu's looking great!" he commented. "I guess that all your Pokémon are looking great but you aren't going to be beat me this time round!"

"Hey, we've been training pretty hard!" said Ash, laughing. "So don't expect an easy fight, Stephen!"

"_It's Stephan!"_ the trainer groaned. "Why does nobody get my name right?" He took out one of his Pokéballs. "But never mind that; let's get on with the battle already! But before we start, how about a 3-on-3?"

"Fine by me!" said Ash.

"Sounds good to me as well, like a spicy ingredient in an otherwise plain dish," said Cilan, smiling. "The Challenger Stephan has the first move. Let the battle begin!"

Stephan's Zebstrika was up first and Ash decided to counter it with Tepig. Both of the Pokémon battled bravely and the first round went on for a considerably long time. Tepig's Flame Charge was especially powerful and Zebstrika seemed faster than ever but it seemed that Stephan had also been doing some hard training and Tepig was eventually knocked out. Comforted by his trainer, Tepig took the loss valiantly and watched as Stephan brought out his next Pokémon, Sawk. Ash sent out Unfezant which Iris thought was uncommonly intelligent of him. Pikachu found it hard to concentrate on the battle. He was wondering where Oshawott was and hoped that he hadn't got himself into trouble again.

"Use Aerial Ace!" cried Ash.

"Use Close Combat!" yelled Stephan.

_Seriously,_ thought Pikachu. _Get back already._ Was it too much to ask? The Haxorus had been a pain to deal with, especially since they were fighting it at some ridiculous hour in the morning. And he now knew that Oshawott had ended up fighting other Pokémon in his quest to find the perfect gift. It was a wonder that he hadn't seriously injured himself. But… you had to admire the Water Pokémon's determination. How many would go as far as he was doing after all?

"Alright!" yelled Ash triumphantly as Unfezant managed to deliver the final blow against the type-disadvantaged Sawk. "That was great, Unfezant!" The bird Pokémon squawked proudly.

"Oh, man… And we were doing so well too…" Stephan sighed. He returned the knocked-out Sawk to its Pokéball. "You did great there, Sawk."

"Giving up already?" Ash taunted.

"No way!" said Stephan. "Besides, I've a new partner with me. Come on out, Darmanitan!"

"Cool, you've got a Fire-Type," said Ash as Darmanitan popped out and beat its chest, ready for battle. Pikachu groaned; he knew what was going to happen. "Well, there's only one Pokémon that I'll use for this job and that's Oshawott! Come on out!"

Oshawott, of course, was not there by the side-lines, eagerly awaiting battle. He was nowhere to be seen. The others hadn't even noticed this new disappearance since Oshawott had been doing it so often. There was an awkward silence. Stephan sighed.

"Again?" he said. "Where's your Oshawott gone to this time? I suppose we're going to have to cut this battle short… again."

"Where could Oshawott have gone?" Ash muttered to himself. "He's been doing this a lot lately," he said by way of explanation to Stephan. "And I really don't know why. Have you ever had anything like this?"

"I haven't," said Stephan. "Shall we go and look for him?"

"I'm sure Oshawott will turn up here sooner or later," said Cilan. "If we all go off searching for him; he might come back here and then miss us. Oshawott should know where we are anyway."

"Yeah, I suppose so," said Ash frowning.

"Hey, Ash!" said Iris. "If you're not going to battle Darmanitan, can I do so instead? Pretty please? I want to give Emolga some experience fighting against Fire-Types. And besides, it can get kinda boring just sitting here and watching you guys have all the fun." Emolga leapt up energetically onto Iris's shoulder and gave Stephan the cute look.

"Uhh… Well it's fine by me, if it's fine by Stephan," said Ash reluctantly. He remembered how some of his other Pokémon had had their problematic periods like his Charizard had at one point. He'd get to the bottom of it with Oshawott soon he hoped.

"I suppose so," said Stephan. "It's not like we're going anywhere. And Darmanitan could do with some experience."

"Great!" said Iris. "It's that OK, Cilan?"

"Well," said Cilan, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's certainly unprecedented and it leaves a funny taste in my mouth but I suppose we can make a new and fresh starter out of this."

"Brilliant! And Emolga, remember what we said about the Volt Switch?" Emolga nodded, she remembered. Now it was time to get on with some battling.

"Darmanitan, use Flamethrower!" Stephan cried.

"Emolga, counter with Discharge!"

The battle raged between the pair and even Ash got engaged with it. Pikachu decided that now would be a good opportunity to go searching for Oshawott. He turned away from the battle and walked a little distance although he realised that he thankfully wouldn't have to go far at all when he looked up ahead and saw the Water-Type dashing towards him holding a large, floral bouquet. Pikachu raised an eyebrow. Oshawott skidded to a halt before him and panted for breath.

"How did you get hold of that?" said Pikachu.

"Made… a deal…" Oshawott gasped. "It wasn't… all that easy let me tell you. I thought that… I was going to be bitten… to death or something by that Lillipup."

"You didn't steal them did you?" said Pikachu with disapproval.

"No, I didn't!" said Oshawott hotly. "Why do you think I took… so long?" Oshawott got his breath back. "But don't ask me about it now, I've finally got something!"

"Well, congratulations," said Pikachu not unkindly. "But seriously, will you stop running off like that? You keep getting us all worried about you! I thought Ash was going to do his nut in when he saw that you'd gone again!" Oshawott cringed.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to do all that. I'll make it up to you guys later. I promise."

"OK…" Pikachu sighed. "Oh yeah, and don't forget that Professor Juniper is supposed to be seeing you later."

"What? Why?" said Oshawott, looking surprised.

"Because Ash called her thinking that you've got something wrong with you and she knows you better than anyone." Oshawott blushed.

"I guess I have been acting pretty strangely lately," he said. "But honestly, it's fine now. I just need to give these to Snivy and… er…"

"You're still nervous aren't you?" said Pikachu, smiling.

Oshawott nodded. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Well," he said at last. "I guess there's no time like the present."

"W-W-Wait!" Pikachu shouted, running after him. "Don't go in yet, they're having a battle!"

"Emolga, use Discharge!"

Stephan's Darmanitan quickly dodged the attack and the bolt shot far wide off its intended mark. Out of instinct, Pikachu avoided it too (even though it wouldn't have done him much harm) although Oshawott did not see what was coming and was subjected to another painful electric shock.

"Oh!" said Iris, as soon as she realised what had happened. Oshawott swayed on the spot before falling over. The battle came to an abrupt halt again. Stephan wondered whether he would ever have a full batttle against these guys. "Well, at least Oshawott's back at any rate. Sorry about that."

Pikachu couldn't help but feel sorry for Oshawott. The flowers had been frazzled to cinders. Something told him that he ought to step back; his own fur was standing on end. Oshawott got up and stared at the remains of the bouquet. Emolga cleared her throat nervously and for once, apologised.

Oshawott shot her a glare that made everybody flinch. Apology not accepted. He had had enough.

**"~OSHAAAA!~"**

"Oshawott! What do you think you're doing?" Ash yelled as Oshawott launched himself at Emolga, brandishing his sharpened scalchop. Emolga was actually scared and hid behind Iris. All that the trainers could hear was an angry tirade of words from Oshawott that they of course, could not understand. Pikachu tried to stop Oshawott from doing anything else but Oshawott wouldn't hear any of it. Emolga was chased after by the Water Pokémon as she swore that the attack was not actually meant for Oshawott. Ash ran after his Pokémon but he kept dodging out of the way. Snivy watched but even she wasn't sure of what to do; she knew why he was acting in his way but Emolga was actually innocent this time.

Oshawott swiped at Emolga several times but fortunately missed. Emolga knew Attract wouldn't work so she resorted to panicking instead. Oshawott did not stop until Iris had returned Emolga to her Pokéball. In fact, all of the Pokémon apart from Oshawott were hastily returned to their Pokéballs.

Oshawott threw his scalchop down and turned away from the trainers. He didn't know whether to stay angry or just cry. It was hopeless. Completely and utterly hopeless.

Ash slowly approached his Pokémon. Oshawott's shoulders were shaking. His breath was coming out in short bursts as if he was holding himself back from something. He didn't run away this time when Ash picked him up. In fact, he didn't do anything at all.

"Oshawott, what have you been doing lately?" he asked quietly. Oshawott did not respond. "Can't you see that I'm worried about you? You've just been acting weird and I can't understand why you just attacked Emolga like that. That discharge wasn't done on purpose. You can't keep going on like this! How am I supposed to help you out if you don't tell me what the matter is? Oh, Oshawott," he said as he saw the Water-Type's eyes reddening. "Don't cry…"

Oshawott couldn't help it. What started out as a simple task had turned into a complete and utter nightmare. He simply felt that he had no chance now. Why would Snivy want him? He began to blub and before long; his heart-wrenching sobs rang out across the battle arena. His hot tears splashed onto the ground and what made him feel even worse was that crying didn't help him feel better. Now he just felt ashamed in front of everybody.

Oshawott tore himself from Ash's grip and ran over to his backpack where all of his Pokéballs were stashed. Oshawott, with tears streaming down his face, flung the others to one side and located his own Pokéball. His vision was blurred with stinging tears; he couldn't even see his own Pokéball at first. He eventually tapped its centre button and so returned himself to its contents before Ash could reach him.

"Oshawott!"

"~Pikapi…~"

Pikachu shook his head. It was no good trying to talk to Oshawott now. He was not going to come out now. Instead, he pointed out to Ash the once beautiful bouquet, now blackened and charred. He himself picked up Oshawott's scalchop. The scalchop was an Oshawott's pride and joy and so to have left that behind…

"Flowers…" Ash murmured.

The trainers gathered up their things, including the bouquet, and hurried inside. Pikachu suddenly realised that he hadn't told Oshawott what Snivy had told him.

Would that have made a difference?

* * *

Later that night, when everybody was asleep, Oshawott popped out of his Pokéball. He hoped nobody had heard. Pikachu snuffled in his sleep but thankfully did not awaken. Oshawott walked over to Snivy and saw her breathing lightly although her sleep did appear somewhat troubled. His stomach also jumped when he saw that the bouquet which he had gone to such lengths to get for her was lying by her side. He blinked with surprise; he thought that it had been discarded. Oshawott carefully pulled a blanket over her and turned away.

He noticed that his scalchop had been placed upon the dressing-table. He leapt upon it and held his shell against his stomach. He noticed himself in the mirror and he did not like what he saw. Thin, red-eyed and deeply unhappy. Oshawott shook his head and headed outside where he flopped down onto the grass.

The night was crisp and cold. The stars seemed unusually bright tonight for Oshawott. Was that to prognosticate peace or to mock at his unhappiness?

"What should I do?" he whispered to himself. "Maybe if I just told Snivy in the first place, maybe all this wouldn't have happened. How can I open myself up to her? But… I can't. Oh, I just can't…"

Oshawott nevertheless, felt calmer now than he did earlier. He didn't even mind that the icy air was chilling him to the bone. His mind seemed clearer now than it had done for ages. Maybe if he just lay there a little while longer, everything would be alright…

A shooting star. Oshawott sat up and watched it dart across the glittering sky. Did that have any meaning by any chance? Oshawott almost chuckled. Perhaps it did have some meaning. In the old days, shooting stars and comets were considered ill omens but nowadays, people made wishes upon him. Oshawott decided to do the same.

There. The moment had passed. Oshawott touched his scalchop as a means of comforting himself as and eventually got to his feet. Perhaps he owed Emolga an apology and then have a talk with Snivy… in private of course.

Oshawott shivered as he walked back to the Pokémon Centre. He noticed that the doors were wide open. That was unusual. Oshawott went further down the corridor and pushed the door open to the dormitory that they had all been sharing.

They had all gone.


	6. Operation Matchmaker: Part 6

**Operation Matchmaker: Part 6**

"So Team Rocket has resorted to surprise attacks now," Ash grumbled. One minute they had been asleep and the next, Team Rocket had tried to ambush them. Their Pokémon had tried fighting back but Team Rocket had a new weapon up their sleeves which was for use against annoying Trainers rather than annoying Pokémon. It was easy for Team Rocket to grab the Pokémon once the trainers had been taken out. "We need to bust out of here and find our Pokémon!" He rattled the bars of their cage and got absolutely nothing for his troubles.

"Well, way to go genius!" Iris snapped. "I already thought of that one while you were sleeping away without a care in the world!"

"Sleeping? I was unconscious!" he growled. "If you're so smart, why don't you get out us out of here?"

"We need our Pokémon to do that!"

"And we need to get out of here to find our Pokémon!"

"Guys," said Cilan with a tone that suggested enough was enough. "This is not the time to be fighting. If we're going to get out of here at some point, we need to stay calm. In any case, I hope to find out where Team Rocket has placed us. It surely can't be far from the Pokémon Centre. They wouldn't have been able to carry us and all of our Pokémon a great distance." Ash and Iris sighed.

"Yeah… guess you're right. But I hope that the guys are all OK," said Ash.

The trio heard voices from outside their cell. By the sounds of it, one of them appeared quite angry.

"I told you to check if we had got all of their Pokémon you dumb clots!" screamed Jessie.

"Relax, Jessie!" said Meowth, though feeling somewhat insulted. "We got da twerps' Pokémon and there ain't no way that any of 'em are gonna escape! Pikachu can't break out of an electric-proof cage and the rest can't break out either. Whaddya want me to do? Place myself on guard or someting? They sure won't like to see the likes of me!"

"We're already at the rendezvous point," said James reasonably. "What difference does one Pokémon make? Pikachu has always been our main objective anyway; just think how happy the boss will be to finally get his hands on such a powerful Pokémon!"

"Well unless we stay alert," said Jessie. "I still think we will be tracked down by that Pokémon which you two failed to capture. And remember that a Starter Pokémon is always worth more to Team Rocket anyway!"

"If it turns up, we can simply capture it seeing that it is outnumbered. And we may even be allowed to keep that one considering our haul."

Jessie considered it. "Maybe you're right, James. And I certainly wouldn't mind an Oshawott as part of the team. That thing it carries on its stomach would be quite useful for our operations."

"Oshawott!" Ash whispered to the others. "He didn't get captured! Maybe he'll be able to find us!"

"I don't know," said Iris fearfully. "How will Oshawott be able to follow us if we haven't left any clues behind? And they're right; Oshawott is outnumbered by himself. Oh, if we get out of here, I swear that Team Rocket will pay for what they're putting our Pokémon through!"

Even as she said those words, their Pokémon, in another part of the base, were already trying to break free although failing to do so. Each Pokémon was trapped within a separate cage of their own except that Pikachu was within a special sort of cage as Team Rocket were taking very few chances; they had had enough of the Pika-twerp's attempts of breaking for freedom. Pikachu and Snivy were the most vigorous in their pursuits until Meowth and the Pokémon owned by Jessie and James, Woobat and Yamask respectively, came to see what all of the commotion was about. They had been warned that this would probably happen.

"Now why don't ya just sit tight like good little twerp Pokémon?" said Meowth lightly. "You're gonna get picked up in a few hours or so by some associates of ours and no doubt that you'll be delivered to the boss. But relax, ya might well get a place in the ranks of Team Rocket if ya nice enough!"

"And you call yourselves Pokémon…" Pikachu hissed, staring at his enemy from behind his anti-electric sphere. "But I won't waste my breath on you Meowth; I've known you for too long."

"Well we've been enemies for so long that ya might well consider us friends!" Meowth laughed. "But don't get ya tail in a twist 'cause you ain't got no chance in busting out of there!"

"What have you done with Oshawott?" Snivy snarled. "You didn't bring him in with the rest of us so what have you done with him? If you have harmed any part of him…"

"Chill out! We ain't done nothin' to your little buddy yet but we kinda hope that he does turn up if only so we can have a full set!" Meowth smiled. "Of course, we might have to _subdue_ him a little if ya know what we mean…"

"Why, you coward!" Snivy growled. She lashed out with her vines only for Woobat to counter her with Air Slash. Snivy, weak to Flying- Type moves, took a relentless battering as she tried fighting against Woobat from the confines of her small cage. Pikachu, try as he might, couldn't break free to help her and neither could the others. Snivy's body slammed into the metal bars and there she lay still, gasping for breath.

"If ya play ball with us, then we might just play ball with you," said Meowth. "I may as well tell ya that you're in a secret base in a cave… somewhere."

"Oh, yes, that really helps…" said Snivy weakly. She struggled to get onto her feet but she collapsed back down again.

"Careful," said Meowth. "And don't bite the hand that feeds you. Ya might not like it if I use Slash upon you twerps! I'm stronger than I used to be and I ain't got no problems in letting these babies rip!"

Laughing, Meowth and his Pokémon partners exited the room. Apart from one small ceiling light and an overhead grid, the room was otherwise in pitch-blackness and the air seemed very cold.

"What's going to happen to us?" asked Axew fearfully.

"We're going to get out of here and then we'll find Ash, Iris and Cilan," said Pikachu firmly. "If I can only just break out of this…"

Pikachu's Thunderbolt had no effect though and he didn't have enough room to use Iron Tail. Enraged, Pikachu threw his weight against the cage and struck its sides violently, attempting to force it open. Snivy sat up and curled her fist around the stem that she had with her. All of the petals had fallen of it as they had done from the other stems. For all of their sakes; she hoped that it wasn't a windy night…

* * *

"Where are they all?" Oshawott whispered to himself. How could they have suddenly disappeared into the night like that? Had nobody in this Pokémon Centre noticed their disappearance? Had they even been disturbed?

Oshawott tried not to panic. He tried to approach the situation in a calm manner like Snivy probably would have done. Judging by the possessions that had been scattered all over the place, there must have been a struggle of some kind. All of the Pokéballs had gone missing too including his own it seemed. Oshawott gingerly stepped through the debris and explored his surroundings; seeing if there was anything else.

Oshawott noticed something glint in the moonlight. He went over to inspect it and to his horror, he discovered that it was a dart of some kind. It reminded him of the needles that the Nurse Joys occasionally used when treating seriously injured Pokémon and he knew this since the Nurse Joy here had to use one on him (the fun part had been getting Oshawott to stay still for any length of time despite his then weakened state; he hated needles). Could this thing here be a tranquilizer? He didn't dare touch it. And worse, he saw its 'R' insignia and there was only one group that he knew who proudly wore that sign: Team Rocket. Oshawott gritted his teeth; so they had decided to take revenge for their defeat the other day had they? Well, they were only about to pay for their mistakes again.

Oshawott heard movement outside and flinched. They couldn't have come back for him when they noticed that he was missing surely? Oshawott unhooked his scalchop and raced towards the main doors, just ready to take the intruders face on…

"Well, this certainly is a surprise," said a female voice. "I've had a call about you, you know and you have made me one worried professor, Oshawott."

Oshawott dropped his scalchop. _Professor Juniper?_

Professor Juniper tickled Oshawott's chin which, even under the present circumstances, never failed to delight him. She was still very much attached to Oshawott; she had witnessed his hatching after all which had been a very emotional experience and now he had more or less grown up. "I would have arrived a lot earlier but you know how it is, things to do, Pokémon to see, traffic to get caught up in even if it is about… 11:35," she said, consulting her watch. "I suppose the kids are asleep now but what are you doing up at such a strange hour anyway?"

"~Osha~Oshawott!~" said the Water-Type frantically. He tugged at his former owner, begging her to follow him. Concerned, Juniper raced after the distressed Pokémon and thus found the cause of Oshawott's distress. He showed Juniper what he had found and danced about on the spot with fear.

"Right," she said seriously. "We had better call Officer Jenny; she'll have an idea of what to do. We need to find them quickly. Now, Oshawott, I want you to stay safe and when I say that I want you to stay safe, it means that I want you to stay _here._ No disappearing this time, OK? You could be danger if you go off on your own."

_But the others could be danger as well,_ thought Oshawott. _And so could Snivy._

Snivy. Oshawott caught the faint scent of roses. He saw some of the petals from the bouquet had been scattered across the floor as well. They seemed to lead to the open window, presumably how Team Rocket made their escape. In the forming frost, there were also tyre marks which made sense as it would have been the only way to transport the lot of them. Oshawott clambered onto the window-ledge as Juniper made her urgent phone-call. With the moon out, Oshawott could clearly see that a trail had been left for him, whether accidentally or on purpose though, he could not say. He glanced back once to see if the Professor was watching him.

This was no time to be hanging about; it was up to him to not only find his friends but to save them. He snuck out and using sight and smell as a guide, he hurried across the frosty grass and began to track them down. He was soon lost to the darkness.

Professor Juniper hung up and soon noticed that Oshawott had vanished; he was very prone to doing this.

"I wonder if he'll stop and think this time?" she said to herself. But she smiled as she said so.

* * *

"So you think that Oshawott will rescue us? Well that's it, we're doomed," muttered Emolga.

"Shut up," said Snivy. She was getting sick of her rival's voice and it was her bad luck to have her cage right next to Emolga's.

"I mean, I'm not being pessimistic or anything but I'm a realist here," Emolga sighed. "How do you think he'll find us here anyway, wherever we are? And another thing, even if Oshawott does find us, would he actually be able to beat those fools out there? He certainly couldn't beat me even though I wasn't trying very hard last time."

"Well, pardon the fact that he has a type disadvantage against you!" Snivy snapped, losing her cool. "If you have nothing useful to say, then will you please keep quiet? Can't you see I'm busy here?" Snivy tried to reach the key to their cages with an outstretched vine but the blasted thing, hanging from a nail on the wall, was proving just out of reach. Emolga tutted to herself but kept silent.

"It's no good," Pikachu sighed. "You'll never reach it from where you are." Snivy pulled her vines back and strode about the little space that she had with impatience. She hoped that Oshawott would get here quickly; she was worried about their condition but she was also worried about his…

"So what do you think of him?" So much for the whole keeping silent thing.

"What was that?" said Snivy as she curled up on the cold metal floor.

"Come on; don't play Miss. Mysterious with me! You obviously like him so what do you honestly think about him?" said Emolga.

Keeping her voice down that the others couldn't listen in, Snivy answered the Electric Pokémon.

"What I think doesn't concern you at all and as soon as we get out of here, you will wish that you were still trapped in here because I will sort you out. Undeerstand?"

Emolga smirked to herself as Snivy continued to threaten her. Denial was always a good indicator of one's true feelings. She supposed that Snivy could have Oshawott if they got out because he was an idiot at the best of times and what did she want with an idiot anyway apart from apple-collecting services?

Overhead, a klaxon began to wail loudly and they heard Team Rocket charge past the door, muttering to themselves and armed with their Pokéballs at the ready. Emolga groaned out loud.

"Don't tell me that Oshawott set off the alarm system."

"I thought you said that Oshawott wouldn't be able to find us?" Snivy asked lightly.

"Huh. Well, I'll believe it when I see it. And if so, he better hurry up otherwise we are all going to be taken away by some criminal gang to Arceus knows where where they'll torture us and everything!"

_Way to keep up the morale,_ thought Pikachu as Axew and Scraggy started crying with fear.

* * *

The petal trail was working a treat even as the tyre marks vanished as it stood out clearly upon the white frost and snow leading him up a craggy mountain side where a few Beartic and Cubchoos normally roamed. As they were fast asleep, Oshawott had been thankfully able to avoid them although in the darkness, it wasn't entirely easy. He tripped over the outstretched paw of one and breathed heavily as it made a growling noise. The Beartic moved its paw, almost cuffing back of Oshawott's head. Oshawott did not move until it yawned widely and turned over in its sleep. The danger had passed.

Oshawott slipped on black ice more than once and would have been sent painfully careering back to the rocky bottoms if he had not grabbed onto a frozen, overhanging branch. With chattering teeth, the Water Pokémon yanked himself up and continued upwards, trying to use his instincts to locate Team Rocket and his captive friends. When the moon hid behind thick cloud, Oshawott was left nearly groping about in the darkness, unable to see much more than a few feet before him. He then discovered that he could find no more petals, no more of Snivy's precious clue.

Oshawott cursed to himself when it ran out; Team Rocket must have surely cottoned onto what was happening after a certain length of time. They couldn't have gotten much further though, not in this worsening weather. Even as Oshawott thought about this, snowflakes began to slowly drift downwards; a startling contrast to the weather the previous night. As he watched the snow, it suddenly occurred to him that Team Rocket must have continued the journey on foot; no locomotive would have been able to make it up here. Oshawott jumped; he had to keep on moving before the snow covered their footprints.

"Don't worry guys, I'm almost there," said Oshawott as he trudged onwards. His feet felt like ice and his body was shaking like a leaf but there was no way that he was stopping now.

Oshawott came across the footprints again when the moonlight revealed them to him. It was during this time that he found himself suddenly sheltered from the weather and in a slightly warmer environment. He had ended up in a giant cave buried within the side of the mountain and ahead was an abandoned military base carved within the very rocks (trust the humans to ruin nature in such a way).

Oshawott approached it and deemed it to be the correct place. There was nowhere else for Team Rocket but within these walls. The large metal doors of the secret base were held wide open as if luring him into some sort of trap. Oshawott peered inside and saw a corridor leading downwards, perhaps to an old mine shaft of some kind. Rusting equipment lay scattered across the place, never to be used again by human hands. Trap or not, Oshawott had no choice but to enter.

This was the point where Oshawott triggered the alarm mechanism as his tail brushed against an invisible laser. He winced as unseen klaxons wailed loudly and unseen cameras twisted to view his position. His heart pounded as he imagined Team Rocket suddenly pouncing down on him and throwing him to where the rest of the Pokémon were. Oshawott couldn't abide the thought of his own failure and anyway, Emolga probably thought that he was incapable of doing anything; she said as much. So he ran down the only path available to him. He hoped that he wouldn't bump into the villains on the way.

"You can count on me, guys," said Oshawott bravely. "And you can count on me, Snivy."


	7. Operation Matchmaker: Part 7

**Operation Matchmaker: Part 7**

"Who decided to build such a labyrinth in the middle of nowhere?" Jessie grumbled as they attempted to navigate the underground system of corridors, mine shafts and hidden rooms. Considering its sheer size, it must have been very important back in its heyday and yet it now lay abandoned and forgotten. "It seems rather excessive to me and nowhere near as good as Team Rocket's headquarters."

"Maybe it was built by another regional team," James suggested. "In which case, they cannot hope to stand up to Team Rocket's might!"

"Ya got that right!" said Meowth happily, running with his claws outstretched. "But I hope that we run into the pest sooner rather than later, dig?"

"Oh, drat, another crossroad," James sighed.

Team Rocket stood at a fork in the base's system, which way should they choose: left or right? James then had the bright idea of letting their Pokémon go with Meowth in one direction while they went the other thus dividing and hopefully conquering. Besides, they had equipment of their own to allow easy capture even if they didn't have any water specialist devices upon them. Jessie and James headed right while Meowth and his gang tore down the left with Woobat helpfully lighting up the way since most of the electrics in the building had long since gone kaput.

Even as they hurried in their search for their missing catch, none of the team realised that the Pokémon they were looking for was directly on the floor above them. Oshawott could hear the footsteps beneath him and quickened his own pace to match. The distant hum of forgotten lab equipment would have given most Pokémon the creeps although strangely enough, it actually comforted Oshawott as it reminded him of his early life spent at Professor Juniper's lab. From this he took a new level of determination but just to be on the safe side, he held his scalchop at the ready.

If Team Rocket were underneath him, then by logic; that was where his friends were as well. Oshawott then proceeded to trying to find a set of stairs of some kind although to his annoyance, he only seemed to run into unimportant, dusty labs and single cells that no longer had any use.

One place though that did seem to have some interest was what he later discovered to be the main controls department. Curious, Oshawott saw that the screens at the opposite end of the room were lit up. He went over to inspect them and saw it was a CCTV system. Looking carefully, he saw in one corner that the three trainers were trapped in a cell like the sort he had just seen. It was cold, dark and dank; not a pleasant place to be kept prisoner in. On another screen, he saw Jessie and James running down carrying torches and wishing that they had found another hideout which was easier to navigate.

"Snivy," he said, almost mournfully as he noticed all of the Pokémon held together in what appeared to be a storage facility. Some of them were still attempting to break free for all the good that it was doing them. Pikachu was contained in a different cage to the others but it was Snivy that he was more concerned about. It was hard to tell with the fuzzy imaging but she looked hurt.

Oshawott growled; those villains were definitely going to have to pay.

Before he went, Oshawott slashed through the computer screens, leaving them sparkling and crackling. He sprayed water on the klaxon system as well thankfully killing the sound. It would have done him no good for his foes to see where he was heading should they also find this place. At least he had a vague idea of where they were being kept now. Oshawott left the entrance swinging open as he dashed down the path waiting for him.

Oshawott charged through the next open door he saw and almost plummeted straight to the bottom of the shaft as the elevator appeared to be no longer working and was instead waiting at completely the wrong level. Oshawott gripped on for dear life and found that the height or rather the depth was a little much for his tastes.

"I've got to be more careful," Oshawott reprimanded himself. It looked as if even one slip would be highly dangerous. Oshawott breathed heavily to calm himself down before he risked looking downwards. He saw a very faint light ahead though to get to it would mean having to climb down the metalwork in almost complete pitch-darkness. Oshawott attempted to move to the next beam but the rusty metal creaked alarmingly loudly. He held on even more tightly.

"OK," he whispered. "This is bound to be the quickest way. I can do this… I can do this…" Terror filled him however; he didn't have night vision like certain other Pokémon had so he had no way of knowing what else was at the bottom and it wasn't as if he could float or fly to the bottom. He shivered at the thought of falling.

"Come on, come on, pull yourself together. You can do this… you can do this… you can do this…" He couldn't let fear overrule him. It had to be a leap of faith or nothing.

"Aha! Thought you'd be around here somewhere! The game's up for ya now!"

Oshawott flinched and blinked as Woobat's Flash blinded him momentarily. How had they found him so quickly? And more importantly, how was he going to get out of this predicament? Still, at least he had enough light to properly see where he was going. It seemed that the shaft wasn't quite as deep as he previously thought although typically, there was a sleeping Pokémon at the bottom of it. It looked like the others hadn't noticed…

Oshawott managed to place his feet back on solid ground and putting on an air of confidence; he swished his scalchop about almost lazily.

"Fancy meeting you here," he said. He smirked as the Pokémon looked confused at their intruder's discerning lack of fear. "I'm afraid that I better warn you that you will be defeated, not to mention humiliated."

"Ha! You think you can try those twerpish tactics on us?" said Meowth. "We've only got a Pokémon-palooza just waiting for its final member to go join 'em although they don't specify whether you've gotta be brought dere in a net awake or sleepin'! And besides, we've been tagged so much that we know the rules book back to front and front to back so I can tell ya Oshy, that you ain't goin' anywhere!"

"Who says that you can stop me?" Oshawott stuck out his tongue just to infuriate Meowth. It had the desired effect.

"Hey! Just what do ya think you're trying to pull? You'll be sorry that you insulted the good name of Team Rocket! Let's get him!"

_Time for that leap of faith,_ thought Oshawott as he bounded over the edge and straight down. Meowth, unable to believe what he just saw, shook his head and went charging after him with Woobat and Yamask close behind. What they hadn't expected was the Pokémon that awaited them which had just been given a most rude awakening by being treated like a fall cushion from some small Pokémon or another. These would have to do as its targets.

"I said that you would be defeated and humiliated but I didn't say by me," said Oshawott as Meowth and his partners tried and failed to flee from the giant Pokémon.

_Oh sweet irony,_ thought Oshawott as he left his screaming trackers behind him. _Who'd have guessed that there was a Haxorus living here of all places?_ Oshawott would have chuckled but right now, he knew that neither he nor his friends were out of danger yet.

The only thing to do was to carry on.

* * *

Both of the communication devices that Jessie and James carried bleeped loudly. Unsure of whether their target was close by, they retreated into a broom cupboard and quickly activated them. On the other end of the line was the Team Rocket scientist Dr. Zager who often acted as their commanding officer. He was given a quick salute before they cut to the chase.

"Have you reached the rendezvous point, yet?" he barked. Dr. Zager was interested in using Pokémon for his experiments; this was the reason why the trio had taken on this new mission although for the sakes of their own Pokémon, Jessie and James dared not ask the nature of these experiments.

"Dr. Zager, we reached the rendezvous point a couple of hours ago," said James. "We also have most of the Pokémon required for your latest experiment…"

"Most of them?" he queried. "Just what do you mean by 'most of them'?"

"Sir, we have all of the target Pokémon apart from one who appeared to be somewhere else during the time of capture," said Jessie. "We are currently looking for it now in this building as it set off the alarm systems in searching for its companions. You can be assured that we will find this Pokémon."

"Hmm. What sort of Pokémon is this anyway?"

"A Water-Type, sir. An Oshawott in fact."

"Aha, interesting," said Dr. Zager with a gleam in his eye. "A Water Starter would be perfect for my latest experiment. Have you ever considered how Water Pokémon conjure up their water abilities? If they were trapped in hot, dry and intense conditions, would they be able to survive through self-rehydration? And can Water Pokémon who travel around with trainers and therefore do not live in water respond to water environments differently than wild Water Pokémon? Can such a Water Pokémon actually drown if it is not accustomed to what would be its usual environment? Yes, I must do extensive research on these Pokémon! Do make sure you capture the thing; I eagerly await its arrival. I am heading over to the location as we speak. Over and out."

Dr. Zager disappeared from the screen and Jessie and James looked at each other before stepping back out into the open.

"We better find the thing quickly," said Jessie, "Otherwise, it will find the twerps and release them! I for one do not wish to disappoint the doctor."

"Oh, I agree entirely, Jessie. But the twerps are safely locked up and I have the key on my person anyway."

"Guys!" yelled Meowth as he came charging down to meet them. Woobat and Yamask struggled on behind and gasped for breath having expended a lot of energy in subduing the Haxorus. "The twerp's Pokémon escaped us and he's headin' straight to where we encased those yokes! What are we gonna do?"

"Meowth, Dr. Zager has just contacted us. He's going to be here very shortly," said Jessie. "And he specifically wants that Pokémon for another experiment."

"Yikes!" said Meowth. His fur always bristled whenever the words Zager and experiment were mentioned in the same sentence. "But we ain't got it yet and I don't fancy my chances against that dozy Haxorus again! And I bet that once the twerps are freed, they'll head straight to da basement and free Pikachu and the others."

"Then why don't we grab the Pokémon before they do?" said James. "We can always bring them to the pick-up point before the scheduled meeting. I'm sure the mechanics for transportation are in the main control room so that we can easily shift whatever is in the storage basement to the lower caves in this mountain."

"Wow, James, have you been hit by an encyclopaedia or something lately?" said Jessie with surprise. "You seem to be coming up with a lot of good ideas."

"It must be my new training coming out in me!" James beamed.

"Yeah, that's all very good an' all, guys but it's freezing out there!" said Meowth.

"Oh, don't be such a wuss!" Jessie sighed. "Whoever occupied this building last had heating installed and I suppose we don't want the merchandise getting too cold."

"Yeah, thanks for considering that," Meowth grumbled.

Team Rocket headed to the control room after a few false turnings but they soon noticed that somebody else had been in there before them. Though most of the equipment had been damaged beyond repair by a certain Pokémon, the most important thing in the room, even more important than the cameras, was the conveyer controls. Jessie did the honours and pressed the large red button. Even from their position, they heard the beginnings of a deep rumbling sound; the sound of the mechanics booting up. They grinned at each other and congratulated themselves on a job well done.

* * *

_Oh, I hope I find them soon, _Oshawott thought to himself as he avoided gaping holes in the floor and tried to stay on the path that offered some light to see by. He didn't know how much time he had left and he felt almost completely drained of all his energy. It was so cold that icicles hung from the overhead pipes and Oshawott skidded more than once on the patches of ice before him. He hoped that the other Pokémon were warmer than he was…

The Water-Type shook himself of tiredness and pushed open the next door that he came across. It swung open easily, almost as if it had just been oiled. Curious, Oshawott looked inside.

_Finally!_ Oshawott thought with delighted relief. Inside the cell-room lay Ash, Iris and Cilan, all of whom appeared to be sleeping, no doubt wiped out with worry. Oshawott stared at the heavy lock and realised that he would have to crack the thing apart seeing that there was no key available and in any case, he wouldn't have been able to turn it properly anyway. Oshawott concentrated and placed all of his energy within his next move; soon his scalchop began to glow with the built-up energy.

"~OSHAAAAAAAAAAA!~" he cried as he struck the steel padlock with pinpoint precision. Ash, Iris and Cilan jerked awake, not realising what was going on. A large crack suddenly appeared along its groove and before they knew what was happening, the padlock fell to the floor with a heavy clang and shattered. Oshawott slowly let out a breath that he hadn't realised he had been holding. He was quite surprised with himself.

"Oshawott!" cried Ash happily. He scooped up his Pokémon and hugged him. "Thanks for getting us out of there! I thought I was going to be driven mad stuck in there with Iris…"

"~Oshawott!~Oshawott!~" Oshawott hugged him back, just glad to be reunited with his trainer.

"Oh, wow, he managed to find us after all," said iris.

"I told you Oshawott would be up to the job!" said Ash triumphantly.

"Now that we're out of here," said Cilan, picking himself up off the floor. "We need to find the rest of our Pokémon before those crooks take them away! Oshawott, do you know where the others are?"

Oshawott bade them to follow him. Although he didn't know exactly where, he did have a vague idea of their whereabouts. Oshawott dashed for the stairs leading to the lower levels (although this time, he made sure that he wasn't about to fall into another pit). He glanced back once or twice to make sure that they were still following him. The set of double doors that faced them on the basement level could only have lead to the storage facility. Oshawott whimpered as his hearing picked up upon the sounds of the Pokémon from the other side.

"Guys, is it just me or can you hear them?" Iris gasped. "Don't worry Axew, I'm coming for you!"

However, just as the group made to barge their way in, a sudden, violent rumbling threw them off their feet. This time, the cries could be heard much more clearly until they faded away into an uneasy silence. Ash wrenched the doors open and found himself staring at a huge, speedy conveyer belt heading in a downwards direction that the trapdoor floor had now revealed. All of the boxes and cages that were in there had disappeared down this chute.

"I guess this is the only way that we're going to find our Pokémon," said Ash, clenching his fists. "And it doesn't matter how dangerous it is, we have to find them! We can't allow Team Rocket to win!"

Oshawott, in his determined state of mind, was the first one to throw himself down the conveyer chute, allowing nothing to get in his way. In fact, Ash, Iris and Cilan had to run after the Water-Type as he vanished out of their sight.

The mark of a good trainer is to always be there for your Pokémon no matter what happens. A good trainer will not allow their Pokémon to be easily taken away from them. In this moment in time, all of Oshawott's antics had been forgotten as he seemed remarkably different again to the trio.

Oshawott may have been exhausted and worried for everybody's sakes but there was no way that he was about to give up.


	8. Operation Matchmaker: Part 8

**Operation Matchmaker: Part 8**

In the darkness, it was hard to tell exactly when the conveyer chute would end for despite its speed; it seemed to be taking an uncomfortably long time for the trainers to be reunited with their Pokémon. Although Oshawott, theoretically using his Pokémon senses, was able to detect that they were almost at the bottom of the chute and could therefore, leap safely without crashing into the floor first, he was by nature, a clumsy Pokémon.

Oshawott was the first one to land painfully onto the stone cold floor and his scalchop also painfully pressed into his stomach but at least he had the foresight to roll out of the way before everybody else ended up crashing on top of him. Oshawott prodded Ash to make sure if he was alright.

"Ow…" Ash moaned. "I think I just landed on my head…"

"Well that's fortunate," groaned Iris. "It might have hurt you more if you landed on something else. Cilan, are you alright?"

"I think so," he answered. "I suppose it could have been worse. There are no broken bones at any rate. I don't know where on earth we are though. We need light of some kind."

"We need to find Pikachu and the others right away!" said Ash. "Maybe if Pikachu keeps trying to break free of whatever he's trapped in, he should be using Thunderbolt so we'll be able to find them that way. Oshawott, are you alright to continue? Oh, I see…" said Ash as Oshawott stared at him with a look that suggested painful things would happen if Ash tried to recall him back to the Pokéball. Why would he go back into his Pokéball at a time like this? Oshawott turned tail and strode down the only path available to them, trying to look confident in the face of danger.

Did I say he strode down the path? Well, he actually strode into a wall. It did happen to be very dark in those lower cave basements.

"Maybe I should return you…" Ash sighed as Oshawott rubbed his now throbbing nose. Oshawott however, promptly ignored both the comment and the Pokéball's returning beam. He tried again, this time pressing himself against the wall to avoid any more accidents.

"Besides," said Iris as they listened out for any signs of their Pokémon. "You're going to have to keep Oshawott out anyway. How else are we supposed to fight Team Rocket when they have Pokémon of their own and Oshawott's the only one we've got? We can't exactly fight them, sheesh!"

"Come on, Iris! Oshawott's gone all this way to find us and he might have gotten involved in some fights already! I'm sure he's tired… not to mention hungry. When was the last time he ate anyway? Oshawott might not be able to use his stronger moves if he's so tired."

_I am here you know,_ thought Oshawott peevishly as the trainers followed him close behind. There was a dim light source ahead of them and Oshawott began to move faster forcing the others to chase after him. The wind howled outside and snow flurries had been blown quite deep inside. Ash and Iris still argued over whether Oshawott would be able to battle or not.

_I mean, they shouldn't talk like I'm not here. I just want to find the rest of them and make sure that they're safe. Do they think that it's easy being a Pokémon? Huh, I guess I must be feeling tired…_

"You know, I think I may have some food somewhere…" said Cilan, reaching into his pockets. Oshawott stopped in his tracks and looked at the Pokémon Connoisseur.

"What? You had something all this time?" said Ash alarmed. "And don't say anything, Iris!" he muttered before she could get a word in edgeways. "You weren't the only one complaining about being hungry either!"

"Yeah, well, maybe!" she snapped. "But it's just as well Cilan didn't say anything or else you'd have probably had the lot! and I think Oshawott needs it more than we do!"

"Guys," Cilan sighed. "This really isn't the time for arguing. For all we know, Team Rocket may be able to hear our every word." That shut the pair up. Cilan bent down and held out the snack to Oshawott who sniffed at it curiously. "You need to keep your strength up in these cold conditions otherwise you're likely to faint and we don't have any Potions on us. Please eat it, you know it's delicious. And I made it especially for you."

"You did?" asked Ash.

"It's a high-energy cake perfect for Pokémon with high metabolism like Oshawott," said Cilan. "When you're a Pokémon Connoisseur, you have to know these things. And I made sure that it contained a lot of vitamins as well in case Oshawott was feeling ill."

Oshawott took the food cautiously as if afraid it was going to bite him; he hadn't eaten properly for ages. He nibbled at it slowly and suddenly felt a wave of culinary pleasure hit him. He was right, it _was_ delicious. How could he have forgotten the taste of Cilan's cooking? Oshawott happily munched down the rest of it and looked to Cilan for more. Cilan gave him the last of the treats which Oshawott hungrily tackled.

"Slow down!" Cilan laughed. "I don't want to see you choking although you do look healthier already." Oshawott gulped down the remains and looked at Cilan pleadingly for even more. He was disappointed to learn that there was nothing left.

"How are you feeling, Oshawott?" Ash asked. "And I don't mean just now but lately as well. I don't know whether you would have opened up to me earlier but will you now?"

He was surprised by Oshawott's crimson blush and that he turned away tapping his scalchop nervously. Cilan being Cilan suddenly clicked since he had a better idea of what a Pokémon was trying to hide with his experience as a Gym Leader and Pokémon Connoisseur. That explained the flowers at any rate. However, he felt that it would have been unfair on Oshawott to say anything so he kept quiet on the matter. He changed the subject.

"You'd better ask Oshawott afterwards; we still have our Pokémon to find. They should be further ahead; Team Rocket can't have taken them very far in this."

Ash and Iris agreed for once and they raced down the cave with Cilan behind and Oshawott ahead, waiting for any sign of their Pokémon. They finally made it outside and shivered with the cold since the temperature had dropped dramatically. Hopefully their Pokémon were warmer.

Oshawott noticed the Team Rocket logo adorning the cages and the shelter that Team Rocket had constructed before the rest of them had and growled with anger. Snivy, Pikachu, Axew, Emolga. They were all there with a windshield being their only protection along with some transportable heaters that Meowth was currently warming his tail by. He looked up and saw one small, raging Pokémon charge towards him.

Meowth leapt to his feet and picked up the nearest cage, coincidentally the one containing Snivy and cackled: "Put the brakes on or the Pokémon gets it!" They were near the edge of a high mountain cliff. Oshawott immediately stopped in his tracks and for the sake of Snivy, did not use the scalchop that he was going to attack Meowth with.

"Those annoying twerps!" James complained as soon as they noticed the trainers. "How do you keep getting out all of the time?"

"With some help from a friend!" Ash retorted, indicating his Water Pokémon. Oshawott folded his arms and stared at Team Rocket whilst desperately trying to ignore Snivy's current predicament. She looked even colder than Oshawott felt since Ice was a big type-disadvantage against Grass Pokémon.

"Hah! And you expect to beat us, ya little pipsqueak?" said Meowth, addressing his Water-Type opponent.

"~Oshawott!~Oshawott!~"

"Yeah, yeah and I'm a Mankey's uncle although I don't suppose you know what I'm talking about anyway, you backwater Pokémon."

_"__~Osha~Oshawott!~Oshawott!~"_

"Hey, don't just blame me!" Meowth snapped. "Do ya think I do all of da plannin'? And ya know that I'm a free agent so whaddya take me for?"

"~Oshawott.~"

"OK! That's it! I don't know what in the heck you're plannin' except fer a trip to the Pokémon Centre but I could take ya with my claws tied behind my back!"

"Meowth, start translating or start by getting rid of these twerps!" Jessie shrieked. "Dr Zager will be here any minute!"

"Who's Dr Zager?" Iris asked. "But more importantly, is he coming to steal our Pokémon?"

"We wouldn't call it stealing but more of a fulfilment of mission objectives," said James lightly. "Now if you whippersnappers don't mind, we'll be taking the merchandise now and do away with you!"

"No way!" said Ash. "And whoever this Zager guy is, we're going to stop him too! Guys, we'll distract Team Rocket while you free our Pokémon!"

"And what makes you think you'll get away with that?" said James. "That really does it! Come out, Yamask!"

"And you too, Woobat!" said Jessie. "We'll show them that we are not to be trifled with! I'm pretty sure you can deal with the tall twerp and the twerpette on your own, Meowth. We'll deal with this one."

"Sure thing!" cried Meowth. He blocked Iris and Cilan from reaching the cages and instead of using his claws as might have been expected from a normal Pokémon, he pulled out a bazooka from nowhere since Meowth was not a normal Pokémon. They would have a hard time getting past this baby.

"Oshawott, use Tackle!" Ash cried. Oshawott charged forwards and slammed into Woobat since Tackle would obviously be ineffective against the Ghost-Type Yamask. Woobat retaliated by using Air Cutter landing a Critical Hit on the lone Pokémon. Oshawott barely avoided Shadow Ball and knew that despite the energy boost from earlier, he still felt weak. Oshawott used Tackle again only to miss and fall in the deep snow leaving him an easy target.

"Oshawott!" Ash yelled as his Pokémon cried out with pain. Woobat and Yamask found it marvellously easy to attack Oshawott from the air and Oshawott was thrown into the metal walls of the shelter. Oshawott picked himself up but found difficulty in ignoring the wave of dizziness that overwhelmed him.

"Woobat, use Air Slash!" Jessie cackled.

"Oshawott, use Water Gun!" said Ash in desperation. Oshawott groaned; he could barely aim straight. The only way he would be able to hit his opponents was if they were directly in front of him. Air Slash struck home and Oshawott now landed in front of Snivy's cage. He struggled to move.

"Huh. What a weak Pokémon," said Jessie.

"Be reasonable," said James. "It did climb a mountain beforehand after all. We should still capture it."

"You leave Oshawott alone!" yelled Ash. There was only one thing to do. He threw himself onto Team Rocket so that they fought amongst themselves. Iris and Cilan were unable to get any closer to the cages and although they called out commands to their trapped Pokémon, they were still unable to break out. Iris resorted to tackling Team Rocket as well leaving Cilan to attempt to deal with Meowth alone.

"Get up," said Snivy quietly as Oshawott lay there panting for breath. "Come on, Oshawott, you can do it." Oshawott pulled himself upright and held onto the bars for support. "Take a deep breath. You'll be fine. Get up already."

"I can't…" he said weakly. "I can't. I…"

"Yes, you can," she said with the tone that said she wouldn't hear another word of it. Oshawott looked at her for a short moment and breathed heavily. A vine wrapped around him and he trembled with its touch. "Look, just concentrate and you'll be fine," she said. "You have to do it for all of us. And Oshawott?"

"Er- yes?" he said cringing.

"I… er…"

Oshawott was surprised. Snivy was hesitating? He often felt like that himself but Snivy was really much more confident that he was. Just what was she going to say?

"I'll tell you later," she sighed. "Just get out there already and don't do anything stupid."

Oshawott nervously chuckled. That was more like the Snivy he knew. He turned around and used the delayed Water Gun against Woobat. It froze in mid-air and so Woobat was struck with what appeared to be like an Ice Beam, taking major damage in the process.

"Way to go, Oshawott!" Ash shouted triumphantly from the middle of the fracas. Oshawott was as surprised with the results as Ash was but now he had an advantage against at least one of the Pokémon. Oshawott used the icy Water Gun again and Woobat was promptly knocked out. One Pokémon down, two other Pokémon to go.

"Ah, Woobat!" said Jessie crossly. "You got lucky that time, punk. Return!"

"I guess it's up to me and Yamask!" James announced. Oshawott seemed more confident in having got rid of one opponent until James commanded it to use Will-O-Wisp. The spectral flames hit Oshawott before he was able to douse them out. Oshawott whimpered as he suffered its burning effect. On the other hand, at least he felt warmer now.

"Oh, no, I've ran out of ammo!" said Meowth. He threw the bazooka aside. "Guess I'm just gonna have to use these beauties instead."

"Iris! Help me out!" Cilan cried as Iris was still too busy fighting Jessie. Pikachu threw his weight against his anti-electric sphere in desperation and this time, he heard it begin to crack.

"Hey, Meowth!" Pikachu called out. "Trying to use your claws, huh? I bet those things couldn't even slice through paper, they're that weak. And if you can't slice through paper, you certainly can't slice through this thing here."

"Just because it ain't as powerful as your Thunderbolt, it doesn't mean that these babies are weak. I'll show ya just how tough these things are, Pika-Pal!"

Sure enough, to Meowth's satisfaction, the weakened sphere easily shattered into tiny pieces and Pikachu was freed. His cheeks crackled violently.

"Ha!" said Meowth. "I told ya that these things would do the business and I… er… GYAAAAAH! WHAT HAVE I JUST DONE?" he yelled as Pikachu smirked at him. He didn't need to be told to use Thunderbolt. Meowth was duly shocked and frazzled. "That was a dirty trick…" he muttered as he put out his singed fur.

"Well, duh," said Pikachu. "And you should know all the dirty tricks in the book."

"Nice one, buddy!" said Ash. Pikachu bounded over next to Oshawott who was having trouble with the constant flaring up of the burn effect. Pikachu sympathised; that status-afflicting _hurt._ It wasn't as if they had any status healers on them either since most of the stuff had been left back at the Pokémon Centre. "Looks like you're going down," Ash said to the worried Team Rocket.

Iris and Cilan were able to pick the locks with a key that Meowth had been carrying along with the bazooka and soon enough, all of the Pokémon were free.

"Oh, Axew, you don't know how worried I was about you!" said Iris to her baby Dragon Pokémon as she cuddled him. "Especially with all this ice, it's just not right for Dragons!"

"You're all alright!" said Cilan joyfully. "This is like a dish of sweet happiness with added flavours of reunion!"

They all prepared to fight Team Rocket but even as they aimed to do so, a helicopter suddenly came whirring down on the previously unseen helipad. The snow was whipped up in the air temporarily blinding everyone. The door silently slid open.

The shadowy figure that stepped out was none other than the notorious Dr Zager.


	9. Operation Matchmaker: Part 9

**Operation Matchmaker: Part 9**

The Pokémon and their trainers stared at the scientist as he slowly eased himself onto the frozen snow. Clearly, he was well-prepared for the weather with his fur coat and thick boots while the Pokémon had to contend with the elements with fur and fat being their only solace.

Most of the Pokémon took a step back. They couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly but this human was giving off bad vibes and probably only had to look at most Pokémon to send them scurrying. He was a Team Rocket Scientist so that was bad enough but those… unsavoury experiments that he conducted were even worse and these Pokémon didn't even know about them. He was definitely no friend to Pokémon that was for sure.

"Blasted winds," Dr Zager muttered to himself. "I would have got here sooner if it wasn't for that. Ah, you three, just what are those Pokémon doing out of their cages?" Team Rocket froze momentarily and then rushed over with an almost simpering air since they were unused to seeing the scientist in person before.

"It's nothing, really," said James, nervously laughing. "We just have some problem children on our hands, that's all. We'll get rid of them in a jiffy!"

"We did say that we would bring them all here and we have," said Jessie with a sickly grin as she used a Revive on her Woobat. Woobat was brought out again once it was completely healed. It fluttered over to Yamask; neither of them wanted to be near this creepy scientist.

"Yeah, and we've even got dat Pokémon which we didn't have earlier!" said Meowth brightly pointing to Oshawott. Oshawott stood his ground and bared his teeth, just daring Dr Zager to challenge him. He was thrown by the sinister smile that he was given in return but nevertheless he stood in front of Snivy so that she wasn't in harm's way. He hoped that his quivering would be mistaken for the wintry weather's effects.

"Oh, how sweet," said Dr Zager icily. "I love a Pokémon with guts and spunk to boot. I see that you would be perfect for my latest experiment." Oshawott shivered and it was nothing to do with the cold.

"Whatever you were planning to do with our Pokémon," said Cilan. "You are simply not going to go through with it. Scientists among every other person are supposed to work with their Pokémon. They do not use them to satisfy their base needs for sick experiments! How can you call yourself a human? And you too, Team Rocket! Aren't you ashamed of yourselves as well?" he shouted, pointing dramatically at the silent trio. They shuffled about looking embarrassed. They never had this from the other twerps before.

"You tell him, Cilan!" Iris shrieked. "It just makes me really angry to see people like this in the world!"

"What I want doesn't concern you," said Dr Zager with a voice colder than the north wind. "Cooperate and we shall even give you free passage back down this mountain. You may expect to be rewarded."

"You think you can just buy our Pokémon off us?" said Iris, aghast. She clutched Axew even more tightly. "That's just… disgusting! Who'd do such a thing?"

Dr Zager gave a delicate sigh. "Then I suppose I shall just have to take them off you."

"I don't see how you would be able to take us all on!" Ash shouted. He was shaking with fury. "Even if you've got Pokémon on your side, you still can't beat all of us!"

"I don't need Pokémon for those sorts of purposes," said Dr Zager. Pokémon… were just simple tools at the end of the day, even the talking one that travelled with his colleagues although that one was quite interesting. He didn't understand why people could form powerful bonds with such creatures but then he didn't want to understand.

Ash and the gang realised that Dr Zager hadn't come alone. Four Team Rocket Grunts, dressed in black furs emblazoned with the 'R' insignia, suddenly filed out of the motionless helicopter, all clutching Pokéballs in their thick gloves. Ash grimaced: when was the last time he had to take on these guys? (Jessie, James and Meowth notwithstanding of course.) Giovanni's business was still going strong then it seemed. When on earth would their nefarious schemes be stopped and the team be disbanded and imprisoned? Pikachu's cheeks twitched with rage at the sight of them.

Dr Zager did not have any Pokémon of course. Instead, he held up a ray gun not dissimilar to the bazookas that Team Rocket was fond of. It possessed a paralysing energy pulse that surrounded and subdued most Pokémon in seconds and its outer parts glowed red as its inner cells sprang to life. It was a formidable weapon with its only let-down being the time it took to charge up each shot. "Prepare yourself," he said and he fired.

Oshawott, being at the front of the group was the likeliest target of the gun. He didn't have time to think logically but neglecting his own safety for the sake of the others, he raced to slice the weapon in two, ignoring the flame that still enveloped him. He was so sure that he could slash it there and then with no problems.

However, Dr Zager was quicker on the uptake and Oshawott was nowhere near his full strength. As a result, the energy pulse hit him violently and shattered his defences. Crimson energy waves shimmered about his body and each time Oshawott tried to move, they too flared up causing Oshawott to collapse again. He shot Dr Zager a look of pure hatred; he couldn't even move to handle his scalchop. This was just not his day.

"Take out the rest of the Pokémon," he barked to the Grunts and the usual trio. He moved over to the subdued Oshawott but found Snivy blocking his path, her vines held out before her. He dared not move closer.

"Snivy…" said Oshawott weakly. He couldn't move without causing himself further damage and in any case, Snivy held him in place to make sure that he wouldn't do just that. Seeing that it would be pointless to argue, Oshawott let her do so.

The Grunts all released Vanilluxe which were of course suitable to these climes. Ash groaned. Out of his Pokémon, two of them were weak to Ice; two of Iris's Pokémon were weak to Ice and all three of Cilan's Pokémon were weak to Ice. They needed to swiftly end the oncoming battle if they stood a chance of winning even with their boosted numbers since Vanilluxe was the final evolution was Vannilite.

Jessie and James sent Woobat and Yamask after Snivy who was currently protecting Oshawott. His breath was laboured; he had never felt so cold in his life even with the burn effect. Snivy was frustrated that she couldn't help him in any way other than battle.

"Use Thunderbolt, Pikachu!" Ash cried.

Pikachu quickly struck the Woobat with the super-effective move and did so again while Cilan's Pansage made short work out of Yamask. The rest of the Pokémon raced forwards once given commands with Tepig, Dwebble and Excadrill being especially vital with their moves.

Woobat and Yamask were not stupid; they knew when they were outnumbered. There were eleven fighting on the other side (Oshawott couldn't of course) and so they retreated to a far safer spot as did Team Rocket. Technically, they had completed their mission since they had brought the Pokémon to the rendezvous point as requested and in any case, their own Pokémon were hurt. They, however, carried on watching the battle somewhat nervously.

"Use Ice Beam!" the Grunts continuously grunted. Frustratingly, they had already used Light Screen to take less damage from special moves. The Grass-Type Pansage and the Dual-Type Scraggy were forced to dodge the Ice moves repeatedly leaving them no chance to attack. However, Dwebble managed to use Rock Slide and Excadrill used Metal Claw leaving the opponents with less health than before.

"Gah, I hate kids," one of them growled.

"You're telling me," another one said. "Cover me; I'm going to use the big one. Vanniluxe, use Giga Impact!"

Vanniluxe was surrounded by a purple energy sphere and before some of the Pokémon knew what was happening, it then launched a devastating beam that took out Axew, Scraggy and Stunfisk. It was a powerful move and the other three covered their partner as it recharged leaving no openings for attack. Iris snatched up Axew and the other two were returned; safe in their Pokéballs at least.

Another Vanniluxe began charging up Giga Impact. Ash guessed that once it had used the move, the other two would also use it and so pick off their team alarmingly quickly if they were all bunched together. Thinking fast, Ash got their Pokémon to scatter just before the other Pokémon used Giga Impact. Unfezant was much safer up in the air than the rest were as they were the focus of the attacks.

"Unfezant, use Aerial Ace!" Ash yelled. The Bird Pokémon flew around the back of the Vanniluxe and zoomed straight into it using its quick moves. The Vanniluxe was very much weakened. Light Screen had also worn off too. Aerial Ace was always a very useful move. Unfortunately, one of them retaliated with Frost Breath which always resulted in a critical hit thus taking Unfezant out of the battle.

"How are you guys holding up?" Cilan called out as he fretfully watched his two Pokémon battle for what were essentially their lives. Unfortunately, Dwebble was taken out next despite its high defence and Iris's Emolga was in the critical stage.

"Hey! Aren't you helping out?" Emolga gasped to Snivy. But she was too busy staring at Dr Zager who had almost fully charged up the weapon again in the midst of all the commotion. The next time he got round to building this, he would have to make sure that it took far less time to charge and fire. She urged Oshawott to try and move this time but to no avail.

"Not too good!" Iris yelled. "They're too strong!"

"They're not too strong for the likes of us!" Ash snarled. "We've almost got them now! Use Flame Charge, Tepig! Use Thunderbolt, Pikachu! Everybody, attack at once!"

Anybody watching from a distance would have wondered with the amazement at the conflagration of fire, electricity and other elemental moves blasted at the Vanniluxe. They had battled long but there was no way that the Ice-Types could withstand the sudden onslaught against them, finally resulting in their knockouts.

The Grunts cursed themselves for not having more Pokémon while Team Rocket was quietly impressed with the twerp efforts. The Grunts' mission had been a failure; they decided to retreat to the helicopter and let the scientist see things through against a bunch of kids. This whole work was more distasteful than normal anyway.

Dr Zager snorted under his breath and made a memo to have them punished later. "This is where machines come in handy…" he muttered to himself. He cocked the weapon and prepared to fire at Snivy who had been valiantly protecting Oshawott from him.

"Oh no, you don't!" Ash snarled. "Use Flamethrower, Tepig!" Tepig happily obliged.

"Why, you good-for-nothing boy!" Dr Zager yelled as his weapon suddenly heated up to levels too hot to handle. He was forced to drop the gun and Pikachu used the full force of Iron Tail upon it. That should have taken care of it.

However, Oshawott was still in his paralysed state despite the destruction of the energy core. He couldn't even brush the snow flurries off his face. Oshawott tried and failed to swallow a whimper. Dr Zager gave a nasty chuckle.

"Do you think that it would be so easy? I've been told that you have been a travelling trainer for some time and yet you appeared to have learnt nothing or either you are just an inexperienced boy far away from home. Have you not realised the advances that sciences have made? Destroying the energy core does not mean you destroy the effects. No, they last far longer than that. And now you have destroyed the gun, I cannot even release your Oshawott prematurely. I'm afraid it will be subdued for far longer than intended. I pity the thing."

"You don't know the meaning of pity!" Ash spat. "And what makes you think that we can believe you anyway?" Ash wanted to pick Oshawott up but even the slightest movement seemed to cause the Water-Type pain.

However, Oshawott, suppressing evidence of his agony, forced himself upright if only so that he could prove to the scientist that he was not beaten yet.

"Well, well, well," Dr Zager laughed as Oshawott painstakingly removed his scalchop and brandished it as a weapon; not caring that he was being stared at. "I suppose it's very resilient. All the better for my experiment then. Hmm? What's this?" he barked as Oshawott was soon joined by the gang's remaining Pokémon.

Pansage suddenly had the bright idea of giving Oshawott one of the leaves of its tuft as a means of alleviating weariness. Oshawott was tempted but being the usual stubborn soul that he was, he refused for the time being even though every second was costing him precious energy.

_"~Osha~Oshawott~Oshawott~Oshawott~!"_

"What is it saying?" said Dr Zager, irritated with the idea of a Pokémon actually talking back at him.

"I think Oshawott's tryin' to say that dere's no way you're gonna get away with stealin' his pals," Meowth translated as he, Jessie and James finally approached the group again. "He says that he doesn't care what ya do to him as long as the others are left alone 'cause that what friends are for and why he came all dis way in da first place. Da game is up and you can't even fight fairly what with that gun an' all."

Oshawott turned to look at Snivy and found a smile encouraging to continue. Oshawott took a deep, shaky breath.

What was said next was almost too quick for the Pokémon to catch as if he was desperate to get all his words out. He looked as red as a furnace as he launched into his speech. The humans were confused when the Pokémon suddenly burst out in joyous applause; even Emolga looked somewhat cheery. Snivy, for what was possibly the first time in her life, actually blushed as much as Oshawott was doing right now but she too was strangely happy that Oshawott had managed to say, in this most unsuitable of environments, what she had been waiting to hear for quite some time.

"Aww!" Meowth gushed. "That's just gotta be the sweetest thing I've ever heard in my entire life. I gotta tell ya, Oshy, it touched me right dere in my tarnished heart. It just makes me think of Meowsie in a past life of mine…"

"What did Oshawott say?" asked James curiously.

"Can I tell them?" Meowth asked Oshawott. Oshawott nodded and let Snivy gently hold him upright.

"Don't let your heart rule your head whatever it is," Jessie sighed, knowing Meowth's disposition for whatever he considered to be sweet.

"Oshawott's sayin' that he ought to have said it ages ago but he was too shy to do so 'cause he was afraid that he'd only look stupid in front of everybody but since dere's no time like the present, Oshawott finally declared to Snivy how much he really loves her! An' he says he's felt like dis for ages too which is why the twerps thought he was actin' kinda weird an' he's been tryin' all sorts of things only to get scuppered at every other turn! I know how ya feel on that score; I've had to go through myself. But yeah, the bottom line is, is that Oshawott and Snivy love each other!"

"Which I guess is the reason why you had brought the flowers and why you kept them isn't that right?" said Cilan, smiling at the pair.

"Whoa, when did you figure that out?" Iris queried.

"Only a short while ago," Cilan admitted. "When I saw how Oshawott reacted to Ash's question. But it made perfect sense when I thought about it."

"Well, congratulations you two!" said Ash jovially. "And to think I've been worried about you all this time, Oshawott! I suppose you didn't make it as obvious this time but I'm really happy for both of you." Oshawott gave a tired smile as he felt a familiar vine wrap around him again. He could almost forget Dr Zager and the paralysing beam and the attempts to steal them right now.

Dr Zager. They were still in danger. The scientist did not appear moved at all. In fact, he seemed to be almost disgusted; as if Pokémon didn't deserve feelings of love.

What did he care about such foolish sentimental feelings as those? He wanted those Pokémon and he was going to get away with it whether they liked the idea or not.


	10. Operation Matchmaker: Part 10

**Operation Matchmaker: Part 10**

Pokémon were mysterious, powerful creatures. They possessed elusive and startlingly strong powers. They could change the world without ever intending to do so. There was the matter of different Pokémon Types, different Pokémon moves, the concept of evolution and those that did not evolve and of course, the matter of the legendaries. While it was difficult to be able to research the legendaries, a scientist or a Pokémon Professor could research the less powerful Pokémon and of course, Pokémon generally accepted as starters such as Oshawott for example.

Dr Zager liked experimenting on rare Pokémon, the rarer the better which was probably why some species were indeed, pretty rare like the Starters. And since an Oshawott was rare, he fervently wanted to capture it and besides, it had tried standing up to him and therefore, it needed to be taught another painful lesson.

He understood the concept vaguely. A weakened Pokémon was easier to capture than a strong Pokémon and this one, still afflicted by the paralysing energy beam, had obviously been weakened. He drew out a Master Ball since he had heard that it could catch any Pokémon that he threw it at, even the legendaries.

"Er, what are you doing?" Ash began.

"Shut up," said Dr Zager calmly. "I do not care what you think about me or my experiments or Pokémon as a whole. Do you think I'm just going to let you get away with this insult to me and Team Rocket? Of course not. I have many Master Balls on my person since my dealings with Silph Co. A Pokémon captured is never as strong as a wild Pokémon but I will extract its true potential even after capture. It has already been done."

Dr Zager launched the Master Ball at Oshawott who would have whacked it aside with his scalchop had he realised what was about to happen. Then he realised that he wouldn't have needed to do so anyway.

The Master Ball flew into the air after hitting Oshawott and for a moment or two, it looked like it would open and capture Oshawott without letting him fight against its control. Therefore, Dr Zager was thunderstruck when it plummeted back down to the earth and was for all intents and purposes, completely unusable.

Ash, Iris and Cilan started sniggering after a short period of silence and then it soon turned into full-blown laughter that echoed down the mountains: how could such a professed Team Rocket Scientist make such a massive mistake? Even the professionals made mistakes it seemed. Even Jessie, James and Meowth chuckled amongst themselves although they did look faintly embarrassed. Oshawott just rubbed his head; that Ball hurt.

"What a kid!" Iris laughed. "Even the most novice trainers know that you can't capture a Pokémon that's already been captured even with a Master Ball!"

"Talk about an anti-climax!" Ash sniggered. "I guess that means you have no more ideas left, Zager."

Dr Zager quietly seethed with rage. Embarrassment was an unfamiliar emotion for him but he was feeling it now and to be laughed at by a bunch of_ kids_ was practically murder. He did not realise his obvious error at first since he had never travelled about as a Pokémon Trainer. During the course of his research on Pokémon, the question of Pokéballs and the environment that they created for the Pokémon to reside in never cropped up since he was more interested in their power and strength than anything else.

How infuriating.

"What are you waiting for? Go and capture them already!" Dr Zager snapped at the Team Rocket trio. He was not amused when all they did was shuffle about on the spot uncomfortably. He hadn't even noticed that their Pokémon had been returned back to their Pokéballs some time ago.

"Sir…" James began. "I don't think we have many options left. The Grunts have retreated and we would be wise to retreat too…"

"Hmph. Well if you lot are too lily-livered to take on a bunch of kids and their Pokémon then I shall still have at least one prize for my collection!" Team Rocket stepped back sharpish, realising what was about to happen next.

It was foolish of him to try and snatch up the weakened Oshawott when there were so many other Pokémon there and he did not have a back-up plan such as that of an electro-net or other such devices that Jessie, James and Meowth carried about with them, especially in the old days when they used all sorts of things just to nab a few Pokémon. Team Rocket even had back-up plans for back-up plans for the most part. Oshawott, drawing on what strength he had remaining left, launched his scalchop straight at Dr Zager causing the scientist to topple backwards into the snow.

It was also satisfying to see somebody else be electrocuted by Pikachu for a change as well before the inevitable follow-up of a few other moves.

Dr Zager landed in front of the helicopter with his coat and hair singed and he growled with rage when he saw that the spare energy core that he had been carrying in his pocket after all this time had shattered into countless pieces. Oshawott was released from the core's cruel snare and the burn effect had finally died down too.

The entire group suddenly heard sirens whirring in the distance as well as noticing the flash of blue lights that indicated the near arrival of Officer Jenny and her cohorts. Dr Zager fled into the helicopter whose blades quickly began to rotate.

Before he slammed the door shut behind him, he whispered venomously to the group: "I'll get you all yet; you and your Pokémon. See if I don't." Ash, Iris and Cilan shielded themselves from the whipped-up snow as the helicopter began to take off. Jessie, James and Meowth prepared to leave too as they strapped on their jetpacks.

Jessie tossed Ash a disc of some kind. "Maybe it would be wise if you used this. Don't ask why we're giving it you otherwise we will have to steal your Pokémon sooner than intended again."

"Yeah. And that thing might be to our advantage anyway!" Meowth cackled. "We don't do somethin' for nothin' ya know!"

"No doubt we'll meet again," said James. And with that, the familiar Team Rocket trio blasted off via jetpack straight into the black sky and were soon lost to sight. Ash scratched his head with confusion and went to pick up the thing left for him.

"Well, that was strange," Iris sighed. "I guess I'll never understand those crooks."

"Neither will I, Iris," said Cilan. "It's like those people who add heaps of sugar to perfectly good herbal tea when there is simply no need for it. It spoils the aromatic flavours and the delightful scent of the brew. What is it they left you by the way, Ash?"

"It's the TM Scald!" said Ash excitedly. "That will be a useful move for Oshawott. I suppose it would be useful in areas such as these. Maybe that's why they left it. And they would probably want Oshawott to learn this before they try to capture our Pokémon again since no doubt they will. I guess that's how they work. And Scald's supposed to cause burns from time to time, right? That'll be really good for future battles."

"Alright, Team Rocket! Put your hands up and get down on the ground, you're under arrest!"

"Hey there, Officer Jenny," said Cilan as they saw her pull up on her snowmobile with a number of other Officers. "We're glad to see you but I'm afraid you're too late though. Team Rocket already took off in a helicopter and the others flew off with jetpacks."

"Those villains!" she cursed. "We will get our hands on them at some point, you can bet your last Pokédollar on that! But enough about that, you guys must be absolutely freezing. Put these coats on this instant."

"T-Thanks!" they stuttered, suddenly realising that they were indeed freezing after all the excitement was over. They got their Pokémon to return to their respective balls as well for a well-earned rest although Snivy and Oshawott remained outside.

"So I see you got your Pokémon back," said another familiar voice. "Well thank goodness for that! I would have hated for anything to happen to them."

"Professor Juniper!" they exclaimed with surprise as she climbed out of one of the snowmobiles. "How did you find us?"

"Oh, I met up with Oshawott when he was trying to figure out where you lot had gone," Juniper explained as she picked up her tired former charge. Oshawott gave a wide yawn. "I saw which way he had gone after I contacted the police. You've raised him well, Ash, by the way."

"Er, thanks Professor," he said, embarrassed. "And anyway, it just goes to show how resourceful Oshawott is! Oh yeah, and we know why he was acting the way he was too!"

They quickly explained the whole tale from Oshawott finding them to the battle with the Rocket Grunts and the encounter with Dr Zager and so forth. Officer Jenny listened in as her Officers examined the cages left behind, placed them in the back of the snowmobiles and generally searched the area for clues.

"We've got him on our books," she said gravely. "He is a menace to Pokémon and trainers alike but you can be sure that we will get him one day too. You wouldn't want to hear the things that we've heard but he shall be justly punished when we nab him."

"Aww, so that's it is it?" said Juniper smiling. "Well, I think you have yourself a good mate," she said to Snivy. "He's got a good heart but you just make sure that he doesn't get up to any trouble." Snivy smiled at that. "And I do believe you have a good mate in turn don't you, Oshawott?"

Oshawott didn't answer however. He had fallen straight asleep in Professor Juniper's arms almost the moment she had picked him up. It had been a long night and he was absolutely exhausted. He had curled up in the warmth of her jacket and had been lulled to sleep by that and their talking.

"Bless him," said Juniper fondly. "I'd be asleep too after all that. Tell you what, why don't we all get back to the Pokémon Centre? It's too perishing to be out here any longer."

"Definitely!" said Ash grinning. Juniper passed Oshawott over to Ash once he was safely in one of the snowmobiles. Snivy made herself comfortable next to Oshawott on Ash's lap and considering the night that they had been through, she dozed off pretty quickly too with their tails touching each other. Pikachu, to give them some space, travelled with Cilan on the way back.

They barely remembered their clamber out of the snowmobiles even though the journey probably took less than fifteen minutes altogether. Ash, Iris and Cilan trudged back to their room in the Pokémon Centre accompanied by Professor Juniper and without bothering to undress, they promptly collapsed into the beds. Pikachu took his usual place next to Ash while Oshawott and Snivy lay next to each other, covered with warm blankets and sleeping under the gaze of moonlight.

* * *

"You mean I didn't have to go through all that?" Oshawott cried.

"I said you didn't need to prove anything, didn't I?"

"Well, I suppose, but I could have avoided a really embarrassing moment at the florist's…"

Oshawott and Snivy finally had the chance to enjoy each other's company after everything that had happened the other day and be left in peace. After running about in the cold for so long, Oshawott had developed a nasty fever causing him to burn up and feel swelteringly hot and freezing cold at the same time. Fortunately for him though, it hadn't lasted long and Audino was especially pleased that her patient hadn't kept running away this time. Even if Oshawott had planned to, he had actually been too weak to do so on this occasion but Snivy had insisted on being with him this time.

Professor Juniper left them both a present of (oh, sweet irony) Enigma Berries as part of her congratulations before she headed off into town to do some further Pokémon research, waving goodbye to the trainers. It was one of the joys of being a Pokémon Professor to see Pokémon like Oshawott and Snivy giving themselves to each other and she treasured such memories. Truly, Pokémon were marvellous creatures.

Oshawott was pleased to learn Scald, finally replacing his old move Water Gun even though that had proved very useful in the battle against Team Rocket. He used it in the battle against Stephan and knocked out his Darmanitan in practically one shot. Though Stephan had lost, he was elated that they had finally had a full-on Pokémon battle against each other without being interrupted for once. With this unexpected luck, he decided to have a battle against Cilan and Iris as well which was what they were currently up to after his Pokémon had had their deserved rest.

Pikachu bravely took on the role of entertaining Axew and Scraggy for the day. He had enlisted the help of Emolga as well just to make sure that she didn't interrupt them in any way. Oshawott supposed that she would still try and tease him in some way but he could safely ignore that now. And in any case, she would have Snivy to contend with and she didn't take prisoners lightly.

Oshawott nuzzled up to Snivy. "I'm just glad that it all worked out in the end, really."

Snivy nuzzled him back. "I am too although I would have loved to see you in that costume you say you looked so ridiculous in!"

"Yes, well it was," he murmured, leaning lightly against her. "I still wish I could have got you something though…"

"Oshawott, it doesn't matter," she whispered. She pressed a hand against his scalchop, a sign of the absolute trust between them. Oshawott quivered slightly; it was still such a strange feeling to have somebody else touch his scalchop when it was still attached to his body. His heart fluttered. "I heard what it was you were trying to do; the Berry, the Miracle Seed, but at the end of the day, it's the thought that counts."

"I was afraid that I wouldn't look good enough," Oshawott admitted, nuzzling her again. "I know you wouldn't have wanted anything too impressive so I thought I'd get something simple and not too… garish. And at first, I guess I was just trying to follow tradition. But I'm glad you see it that way anyway. So thank you."

They sat in silence for a while on the grass underneath the warm and bright sun. They shared an apple that Pikachu had given them before. Oshawott, acting the gentleman, insisted that Snivy had the bigger piece although this was partly due to him making up for his previous lack of food at breakfast this morning. Snivy knew that but she didn't mind; it was a nice gesture which she graciously accepted.

"Oshawott, I've just been wondering…"

"Hmm?"

"During battle, I'll still be using Attract against my male opponents since it is a very useful move. And you know what that means. You won't suddenly become the jealous sort will you?" she said with a mocking smile. Oshawott folded his arms and smirked back.

"Of course not! What do you take me for? I'm not like Emolga who gets jealous over just about everything. She doesn't like the fact that I like you, er, well, love you really," he corrected himself, blushing. "More than I like or love her. She's probably going to swear revenge any moment now if she hasn't done so already. And then she'll really hate us."

"Oh, well, nothing much changes there does it?" said Snivy as she finished off her piece of apple. "I suppose we better watch out then if she's got something planned up her sleeve especially if she keeps using Attract on everybody."

"Well, I know for certain it won't work on me!" said Oshawott brightly. "She's already tried that one once. And she only uses Attract to get things done for her that she can't be bothered doing herself. No, she'll probably electrocute me instead but I'll be ready this time."

"I know you will," she said. She was quite confident about Oshawott's abilities, more so than ever. Oshawott was certainly proud of himself; that was definitely her Oshawott. And apart from that, Emolga was aware that Scald could cause a nasty burn so for the time being, she had been keeping out of his way as Oshawott proudly professed his new skill to her; a thinly-veiled warning indeed.

It was just so pleasant to be able to sit together with nothing more than the sounds of the Bird Pokémon in the sky and a light breeze rustling past the grass to accompany them. The moment was a perfect one. The only thing now was that Oshawott was working up his courage to do so something that he had never done before.

"Er, Snivy?" he said timidly. Oh, sweet Arceus, his heart was already pounding faster.

"Yes?"

"I, well, er, you see, I… What I mean to say is…" said Oshawott, stumbling over his words. Oh, no, was this going to be harder than actually declaring his love in the first place? Snivy rescued him.

"I think I know what you're trying to get at," said Snivy lightly.

"Y-You do?" he stammered.

"I was… thinking about it myself," she confessed. "Emolga might have had loads of boyfriends so that moment won't be special to her but I… have not."

Oshawott wrapped his arms around her letting his smooth fur brush against her warm skin.

"Snivy, I love-"

"Hiya, Oshawott! Hiya, Snivy! You guys are missing out on all the fun! You should have seen what happened earlier!"

Oshawott practically threw himself backwards as Axew and Scraggy, otherwise known as Pests 1 and 2 came bounding over to them dragging a sorry-looking Pikachu behind them tied up with what looked like String Shot. Oshawott sighed; this moment reminded him of the romantic films that humans tended to watch. Why on earth was the first kiss in any relationship interrupted every single time?

"Sorry," said Pikachu. "They decided it would be a good idea to crash into a Joltik nest and guess who had to go in there and rescue them? That's right, me. And now, it's been apparently a good idea to drag me along like a trussed-up hatchling. So yeah, sorry for disturbing you. I told you two Oshawott and Snivy wanted to be alone!"

Oshawott sighed again and began slicing through the String Shot ropes with his scalchop, trying to avoid Pikachu's fur as he was doing so while Pikachu continued talking.

"And where's Emolga gone off to?" Snivy asked. Pikachu shrugged or at least tried to.

"Beats me. She probably thought that looking after two kids was too much like hard work. I'm guessing she's somewhere eating apples right now. Thanks, Oshawott," he said as the String Shot fell from his body. "Er, I'm guessing this was also a very private moment wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was," said Oshawott, staring at Axew and Scraggy who true to their nature basically ignored any sort of reprimanding.

"You've still got to do that favour for me!" Axew cried, tugging at Oshawott. "I did keep my promise after all!"

"I'll do it later!" he hissed. "I haven't forgotten."

"What sort of favour? And what promise?" Snivy asked curiously.

Oshawott groaned and explained the situation to her including what he had accidentally admitted to Axew. Snivy smiled. Then Scraggy piped up.

"Emolga was tellin' us earlier that when somebody has a relationship with somebody else, they soon have an Egg afterwards because that's what couples do! So I wanna ask you: where do Eggs come from and how are they made?"

Snivy and Pikachu couldn't help but laugh when Oshawott suddenly fainted on the spot although Axew and Scraggy couldn't understand what was so funny. When nobody would explain to them how Eggs were made, they shrugged and ran off again to play.

_I don't think we need to think about that just yet,_ thought Snivy to herself as Pikachu ran off after them and finding themselves thankfully alone again, she then revived Oshawott with a kiss.

* * *

**And that is the last chapter I'm afraid! Thank you for your support and your lovely reviews, my dear readers! It's been nice writing this story and giving my mind a break from exams and revision and so forth. This was going to be a two-parter would you believe it and Parts 9 and 10 were originally joined but it seemed better to split them up. I'll go through this story and edit any parts that need editing and hopefully, there may be more Oshawott stories in the future. :D**

**If you're wondering why I included the part about the TM Scald, it's because I've taught my own Oshawott, Callisto, that move and it is highly useful. Oshawott is cute; we all know this. I shall never evolve mine. ^o^**


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